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FAMOUS ACTRESSES OF THE DAY 

IN AMERICA 



Famous Actresses 
of the Day 

in America 

By , 
Lewis C. Strang 

ILLUSTRATED 




Boston 
L. C. Page and Company 

(Incorporated) 
1899 






ocrr 171881 







. 1 ,ox 



is 

B 



4 '•■• Si * i 
tj / *:j -I: 

Copyright, iSgq 

By L. C. Page and Company 
(incorporated) 



yWO COPs s;LS h 



(..iiiVED, 






&-•! n I Ml 






J 



SECSND C#f»Y f 



Colonial Press : 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co, 

Boston, Mass., U.S. A. 






CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 








PAGE 




Preface ... ix 


I. 


Maude Adams . 




II 


II. 


Julia Marlowe . 




27 


III. 


Sarah Co well LeMoyne 




39 


IV. 


Minnie Maddern Fiske 




50 


V. 


Ida Conquest 




69 


VI. 


Blanche Walsh 






72 


VII. 


Annie Russell . 






82 


VIII. 


Isabel Irving 






98 


IX. 


Maxine Elliott 






104 


X. 


Ada Rehan 






113 


XI. 


Virginia Harned 






125 


XII. 


Viola Allen 






J34 


XIII. 


Corona Riccardo 






147 


XIV. 


Mary Mannering 






156 


XV. 


Julia Arthur . 




. 


161 



VI 



Contents. 



CHAPTER 

XVI. 


May Irwin . 


PAGE 

. 174 


XVII. 


Effie Shannon . 


. . 187 


XVIII. 


Mrs. Leslie Carter . 


• 193 


XIX. 


Mary Shaw 


. 206 


XX. 


Olga Nethersole 


. 217 


XXI. 


Lillian Lawrence 


. 232 


XXII. 


Blanche Bates , 


. 243 


XXIII. 


Elsie DeWolfe . 


. 248 


XXIV. 


Rose Coghlan . 


. 258 


XXV. 


Margaret Anglin 


. 270 


XXVI. 


Fay Davis . 


. 273 


XXVII. 


Odette Tyler . 


. 285 


XXVIII. 


Marie Burroughs 


. 291 


XXIX. 


Kathryn Kidder 


. 299 


XXX. 


Helena Modjeska 


. 306 


XXXI. 


May Robson 


• 323 




Index . 


• 339 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Maude Adams as Lady Babbie in " The Little 

Minister " Frontispiece 

Maude Adams as Juliet in " Romko and 

Juliet" 18 

Julia Marlowe 27 

Julia Marlowe as Colinette in "Colinette" 34 
Mrs. LeMoyne as the Duchess in "Cather- 
ine" 39 

Mrs. Fiske as Tess in " Tess of the D'Urber- 

V1LLES " 50 

Blanche Walsh as Cleopatra in " Cleopatra " 72 
Annie Russell as Catherine in "Catherine" 82 

Isabelle Irving 98 

Maxine Elliott as Alice Adams in " Nathan 

Hale" 104 

Ada Rehan as Beatrice in " Much Ado about 

Nothing" 113 

Virginia Harned as Julie in "An Enemy to 

the King" 125 

Viola Allen 134 

9 



10 



List of Illustrations, 






Corona Riccardo as Berenice 


in "The Sign 




of the Cross" 




147 


Mary Mannering as Rose in " 


Lrelawney of 




the Wells "... 




156 


Julia Arthur as Mercedes in ' 


'Mercedes" . 


161 


Julia Arthur as Rosalind in ' 


As You Like 




It" 




170 


Effie Shannon 




187 


Mrs. Leslie Carter 




193 


Olga Nethersole as Paula in 


" The Second 




Mrs. Tanqueray " . 




217 


Lillian Lawrence 




232 


Blanche Bates 




243 


Elsie DeWolfe 




248 


Marie Burroughs . 


. 


291 


May Robson 




3 2 3 



PREFACE. 

It is obviously impossible, in writing of 
persons so prominently before the public as 
the women considered in this book, to secure 
any great amount of new matter regarding 
the chief incidents of their lives, and the 
author wishes frankly to acknowledge him- 
self a compiler and editor in so far as bio- 
graphical details are concerned. The facts 
were gathered from various contemporaneous 
publications, and in some instances, from the 
actresses themselves. Accuracy has been 
the aim, but sometimes it has appeared, after 
a careful sifting of ambiguous and contradic- 
tory statements, that a well-considered guess 
was the only apparent solution of the prob- 
lem. In so far as criticism is concerned the 



x Preface. 

opinions expressed, except where credit is 
given, are the author's own, and he has en- 
deavoured to be just with kindness, and still 
to preserve a proper sense of proportion. In 
preparing the list of the actresses it was 
necessary to exclude from it many worthy 
of notice. A numerical limit had to be fixed, 
and in the process of selection the preference 
was given to those whose work during last 
season was especially notable. The arrange- 
ment of the book is purely mechanical, and 
comparisons, which are usually foolish, and 
always valueless, are purposely avoided. 

l. c. s. 



FAMOUS ACTRESSES OF THE DAY 

IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

MAUDE ADAMS. 

In figure almost painfully slight and girlish ; 
her face elfishly bewitching in its very plain- 
ness ; her eyes large, blue, and roguish ; her 
hair ashen brown and delicately rippling ; 
unusually gifted intellectually, and with a 
personality of the most persuasive magnet- 
ism, Maude Adams is to-day the most popu- 
lar woman on the American stage. Her 
success is generally considered due to rare 
good fortune, but it is hardly fair thus to 
ignore the years of hard work that have gone 






1 2 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

to perfect an art so subtle that one hardly 
knows whether or not it exists at all. She is 
naturally a comedienne of exquisitely delicate 
and refined methods. Her powers of sugges- 
tion are remarkable, and for that reason her 
acting is exceedingly difficult to analyse. One 
unfamiliar with the theatre, and with the art 
of acting, would say that her work is largely 
intuitive, but intuition and magnetism will 
hardly explain Miss Adams's invariable suc- 
cess in the many different characters that 
she has assumed. Her Juliet — severely 
criticised though it was — showed, beyond 
the shadow of a doubt, that there was within 
that little frame the big, sensitive soul of an 
artist, a soul capable of understanding the 
great emotions and passions, and of express- 
ing them, not with tragic power, but with 
a wealth of pathos far more heartrending. 

Miss Adams is said to be connected with 
the family of John Quincy Adams, the fifth 
President of the United States. Joshua 



Maude Adams. 13 

Adams, a cousin of John Quincy Adams, left 
the family homestead in Quincy, Massachu- 
setts, and moved to Canada. His oldest son, 
also Joshua Adams, immigrated to Utah with 
a party of Mormon missionaries. This second 
Joshua Adams had a daughter, Annie Adams, 
and she was Maude's mother. Maude Adams 
was born in November, 1872, in Salt Lake 
City, where her father, whose name was Kis- 
kadden, was in business, and her mother was 
a member of a local stock company. 

Maude's first appearance on any stage was 
at the age of nine months in Salt Lake City, 
in a play called " The Lost Child." The 
business of the play required that a baby 
should be brought on the stage in a platter. 
The baby that had expected to be cradled 
in the dish had an attack of stage fright, or 
something equally serious, just as she should 
have been behaving her prettiest in prepara- 
tion for her public appearance. She yelled 
and kicked and refused to be pacified. Little 







14 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Miss Maude, who was spending the evening 
in her mother's dressing-room, was seized 
upon by the frantic stage-manager and rushed 
before the footlights, winking and blinking 
and crowing with delight at the applause of 
the audience. Naturally enough, Miss Adams 
does not remember her debut, and her first 
recollection of stage life is the playing of 
Little Schneider in " Our Fritz " with J. K. 
Emmett. 

"I can see," she once said, "a little child 
in satin knickerbockers and jacket, with a big 
collar and tie, holding a jumping-jack in her 
hand, and trying to step out a dance with 
Fritz. That was myself. But it seems as 
though it must have been some other being. 
It gives me such a peculiar sensation in 
thinking about it. In that play I was put 
upon a large wheel, which was set revolving. 
At a certain point I had to scream, but I 
was never quite sure when that time was. 
I used to look at the manager's wife, who 



Maude Adams. 15 

was standing near the wing, and whisper to 
her, * Aunt Gerty, is it time to scream ? ' I 
enjoyed playing with Emmett, he was so 
lovely, and he was so nice to the little 
children." 

Miss Adams's father died when she was 
young, and her girlhood was passed in San 
Francisco, where she went to school until 
she was fifteen years of age. Then she joined 
her mother as a member of the Alcazar 
Theatre Company in San Francisco. 

" I couldn't have had a better school," she 
said, in speaking of this experience. "The 
bill was changed every week, all the standard 
things were played, and I had an opportunity 
to hear all of them, even when I did not 
appear. I have realised the value of this 
early work during all my later experience." 

Miss Adams first came under Charles 
Frohman's management when she joined 
E. H. Sothern's company, during Mr. Soth- 
ern's first tour as a star. After leaving him 



Famous Actresses of the Day. 

she created the character of Nellie, the lame 
girl, in "A Lost Paradise," and then the part 
of the minister's sister, Dot Bradbury, in 
Charles Hoyt's " A Midnight Bell." It was 
not until she became John Drew's leading 
lady, however, that she began to attract any 
great attention, and her first notable success 
was Suzanne in "The Masked Ball." Her 
tipsy scene will be remembered as a particu- 
larly dainty bit of acting, deliciously funny 
but never vulgar. While with Mr. Drew 
Miss Adams also appeared in Henry Guy 
Carleton's "Butterflies," Madeline Lucette 
Riley's "Christopher, Jr.," Henry Arthur 
Jones's "A Bauble Shop," and in "Rose- 
mary." 

The young actress is most widely known 
as Lady Babbie in J. M. Barrie's " The Little 
Minister." Miss Adams played the character, 
which was her first starring role, a whole 
season in New York, and last season she was 
equally successful in the other large cities of 



Maude Adams. iy 

the country. The play itself, though intro- 
ducing the personages and main incidents 
of "The Little Minister," might fairly be 
termed an original work rather than a dram- 
atisation, so skilfully did the author of the 
novel rearrange his story for the stage. 
The drama was simple, straightforward 
and affecting, clean and wholesome, with 
an atmosphere delightfully artistic. Babbie, 
"the Egyptian," was a whimsical character, 
made indescribably fascinating by Miss 
Adams's glowing personality and gentle, 
though keenly incisive and authoritative, 
acting. She was dashing, careless, and free 
as the tantalising gypsy girl ; as the daughter 
of Lord Rintoul, graceful and spirited, seri- 
ous and sympathetic. In pathetic moments 
her touch was sure and her sincerity con- 
vincing ; in moments of light-hearted gaiety 
her blithesomeness was contagious and her 
humour a well-spring of joy. 

Miss Adams has just had the unique 



1 8 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

experience of risking a seemingly inevitable 
failure and winning a most remarkable suc- 
cess. It must be acknowledged that it was 
a shocking thought, — Lady Babbie as Juliet, 
— but no more shocking than the perform- 
ance itself proved to many theatre-goers, not- 
ably William Winter, whose denunciation in 
the New York Tribune of May 9, 1 899, the 
morning after Miss Adams's first appear- 
ance as Juliet, may become a classic. Mr. 
Winter wrote : 

" Miss Adams, a delicate, seemingly fragile 
and febrile person, in the potion scene of 
Juliet, might be expected to supply a mild 
specimen of hysterics. That was feasible, 
and that was afforded. The individual charm 
of girl-like sincerity which is peculiar to 
Miss Adams swayed her performance of 
Juliet with a winning softness, eliciting sym- 
pathy and inspiring kindness. Beyond that 
there was nothing. Many schoolgirls, with 
a little practice, would play the part just as 





MAUDE ADAMS 
As Juliet in " Romeo and Juliet 



/ 



Maude Adams. 19 

well — and would be just as little like it. 
In her especial way Miss Adams is a most 
agreeable actress ; she ought to be neither 
surprised nor hurt to ascertain by this expe- 
rience that nature never intended her to act 
the tragic heroines of Shakespeare. Much 
of the part was whispered and much of it 
was bleated. The personality cannot readily 
be described, but perhaps it may not be 
unfairly indicated as that of an intellectual 
young lady from Boston, competent in the 
mathematics and intent on teaching peda- 
gogy. A balcony scene without passion, a 
parting scene without delirium of grief, and 
a potion scene without power, — those were 
the products of Miss Adams's dramatic art." 

To offset Mr. Winter I quote Edward A. 
Dithmar, of the New York Times, a man 
sane, conservative, and experienced : 

" As she sat on the rude chair in the friar's 
dimly lighted cell, looking up into the old 
man's face, eagerly, beseechingly, and then 



20 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

half turning, with an upward gesture, toward 
the window, spoke so earnestly in a tone far 
removed, to be sure, from the formal utter- 
ance of classical tragedy, but with unmis- 
takable feeling and sincerity, those thrilling 
phrases upon which the hopes of many an 
aspiring Juliet of the stage have broken : 

" < O ! bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, 
From off the battlements of yonder tower ; 
Or walk in thievish way ; or bid me lurk 
Where serpents are — ' 

the triumph of the newest of Juliets was 
assured. Far removed from the formal 
utterance of classical tragedy, indeed, but 
there was more of natural eloquence and 
seeming spontaneity of expression in Miss 
Adams's delivery of those words than has 
been associated with the manner of classical 
drama on our stage since Sarah Bernhardt 
acted Phe^dre. It can safely be proclaimed 
that Maude Adams is not a tragic actress. 
But Henry Irving is not a tragedian, and so 



Maude Adams. 21 

far as the English-speaking stage is con- 
cerned, the manner of tragedy all but died 
with Edwin Booth. . . . 

" Juliet seemed actually to live again, 
loving suddenly and for aye, sorrowing and 
dying. Last winter the critics of music 
frequently and justly found fault with the 
singing of Ernest Van Dyck ; but they all 
declared that his splendid histrionism tri- 
umphed in ' Lohengrin ' and ' Tannhaiiser,' 
in spite of his deficiencies of voice and vocal 
method. Similarly we may say of Maude 
Adams (though I should hesitate to use 
quite such a showy word as ' splendid ' to 
distinguish her dramatic talent) that her 
acting suffices in « Romeo and Juliet,' though 
she does not sing the music as it might be 
sung. She has both tact and a rare quality 
of personal charm to bear her out. She has 
good sense, artistic sympathy, and apprecia- 
tion. And as occasion requires its use, she 
produces an appropriate symbol." 



22 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

There is no mystery in the opposition of 
these critics. Mr. Winter, grounded in 
Shakespearian tradition and not so impres- 
sionable, perhaps, as a younger man, lacking 
in the sympathy that is touched by sincerity 
and genuine humanity, saw only the faults 
— the glaring faults, if you will — of Miss 
Adams's technique. Mr. Dithmar, on the 
other hand, thrust aside exasperating defi- 
ciencies and crudities and startling violations 
of classic rule and order; he reached the 
gist of the whole matter, — the inspired real- 
ness of this Juliet. 

There is only one Juliet that should be 
sought for by all actresses who try to win fame 
in this most difficult of roles. The traditional 
Juliet is the survival of the fittest, the result 
of the united intelligence of the most gifted 
players ; and consequently the traditional 
Juliet is the only Juliet that can be con- 
sidered as a permanent conception. Never- 
theless, there is the stubborn fact that Miss 



Maude Adams. 23 

Adams gave a wonderfully touching per- 
formance of the character. Her convincing 
sincerity, her intelligent reading of the lines, 
— not metrical reading, mind you, for that 
she ignored entirely, — and, more than all, 
the appealing humanity of her impersonation, 
were forceful in the extreme ; and a fondness 
for tradition should not keep one from recog- 
nising these great merits in Miss Adams's 
work. Tradition is a standard of judgment, 
and in most cases a proper standard of j udg- 
ment ; but once in awhile tradition has to be 
thrown out of the window, and it seems 
eminently proper so to treat it in Miss 
Adams's case. 

Maude Adams's Juliet was the creation of 
an actress whose personality and magnetism 
enabled her to override seemingly insur- 
mountable obstacles in the way of physique 
and temperament ; whose sheer mental force 
made not only possible, but pathetically real, 
a Juliet that defied tradition ; whose inherent 



24 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

dramatic power made acceptable a reading 
of the lines that ignored even the pre- 
tence of metre, and also logically established 
a conception that was never for a moment 
tragic, a conception that showed only a girl, 
frightened almost at her great love, and later 
suffering she scarcely knew why. 

One might multiply words in recounting 
the faults in the performance as judged by 
the standard readings of the part. She did 
not look Juliet in the first place ; she spoke 
the lines without the least striving after 
elocutionary effect, spoke them as if they 
were the simplest of every-day prose ; she 
never once thrilled one with the full realisa- 
tion of a supreme, mighty passion. She did 
do one thing, however, and for that one 
thing I am willing to sacrifice all ideals of 
personal appearance, all delight in the music 
of the verse, willing to sacrifice even tragic 
power itself. She made Juliet live ! More- 
over, if she did not speak poetry, she cer- 



Maude Adams. 25 

tainly found in the poetry new and beautiful 
meanings ; and though she did not act tragedy, 
she accomplished far more when she touched 
the heart with a sorrow most genuine. 

Miss Adams was at her best in the first 
scene with Romeo, in the balcony scene, and 
in the scene in Friar Laurence's cell, after 
she had received her father's command to 
marry Paris. The first love scene with 
Romeo was of beauty simply indescribable. 
Remember, this was a Juliet who was really 
a girl, whose youth and innocence added 
immeasurably to the effect of her meeting 
with Romeo. One saw the dawning of love, 
realised the perplexity and bewilderment that 
accompanied love's conception and under- 
stood the wealth of knowledge that came 
with the kiss that so often has seemed mere 
wantonness on the part of Romeo. 

The power of the balcony scene came 
largely from the unusual and vivid interpre- 
tation of the lines. They were read with a 



26 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

perfect comprehension, and with an intensity 
and earnestness that brooked no limitations 
of metre. The scene in Friar Laurence's 
cell was played without a suggestion of the 
horror that is sometimes given it to the 
detriment of the potion scene. The childish- 
ness displayed in the scene with the nurse 
was pronounced, and the potion scene was a 
penetrating picture of a horror-stricken girl, 
driven to the verge of despair, suffering 
pitifully and alone. The -death scene, un- 
necessarily mutilated in the version used by 
Miss Adams, was quiet in the extreme and 
of abiding pathos. 



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JULIA MARLOWE 



CHAPTER II. 

JULIA MARLOWE. 

Julia Marlowe, whose real name is Sarah 
Frances Frost, was born, late in the sixties, 
in Caldbeck, a north of England village. 
She was brought to the United States by 
her parents when she was about five years 
old. The family first settled in Kansas, but 
later moved to Cincinnati. Fanny Brough 
was the name by which Miss Marlowe was 
known, when, at the age of twelve years, her 
stage experiences began in the chorus of 
Colonel Miles's Juvenile Pinafore Company. 
She was too bright, long to remain with the 
crowd, however, and soon she was permitted 
to take such parts as Hebe and Little But- 
tercup. 

27 



28 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

In charge of the troupe was Ada Dow, 
sister-in-law of Manager Miles, and years ago 
a well-known actress. She became con- 
vinced that the girl had talent, and virtually 
adopted her with the intention of training 
her for higher work on the stage. When 
she was fifteen years old, Miss Marlowe, still 
known as Fanny Brough, toured New York 
State with Robert McWade in "Rip Van 
Winkle," playing at first the boy Hendrix, 
and later the small part of Rip's sister. The 
McWade company met with hard luck, and 
finally came to grief at Lyons, N. Y. An 
actor, who was with McWade, has reported 
that Fanny Brough was not altogether a 
favourite with her companions. She was 
pert and saucy, and not much of an actress 
either, a curious comment when one con- 
siders the Julia Marlowe of to-day. 

At the age of sixteen Miss Marlowe played 
her first Shakespearian character, Romeo's 
page, Balthazar. The Juliet of this perform- 



Julia Marlowe. 29 

ance was Josephine Riley, of whom there 
may be memories in the West. Three years 
of hard study at Ada Dow's quiet home in 
Bayonne followed for the young actress, and 
it was the genuine old-fashioned stage train- 
ing that the aspirant for dramatic honours 
underwent, an experience hard on mind and 
body, but thorough if one lived through it. 
There were days and days of practice in gym- 
nastics, in voice culture, in elocution, and in 
stage deportment. Plays were read and 
re-read, time and time again. They were 
worked over with the aid of commentaries, 
histories, and critical notes, and even the 
life story of the author was investigated for 
further enlightenment on knotty points. 
Not until the play as a whole had been thor- 
oughly mastered was the memorising of a 
line permitted. As a result of all this drudg- 
ery, at the end of the three years the student 
had a fair repertory of standard dramas, and 
was ready for her debut as a star, which 



30 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

event took place on April 25, 1887, at New 
London, Conn. It was at this time that she 
was first called Julia Marlowe. 

" I remember quite well my first appear- 
ance in New London. I played Parthenia 
in < Ingomar,' and the morning papers spoke 
of me as a genius, and said that I would 
surely wear a crown of diamonds before 
my career was at an end. How I did enjoy 
that," was the naive account of her debut 
that Miss Marlowe gave several years after. 

A provincial tour of the small cities and 
towns of Connecticut and Massachusetts 
followed, the youthful star playing Juliet, 
Parthenia, Pauline in " The Lady of Lyons," 
and Julia in "The Hunchback." In October 
she boldly tried New York, playing Shake- 
speare at the Bijou Opera House, a theatre 
chiefly given over to light opera. Her com- 
pany was poor, and her scenery and costumes 
were inadequate ; but most disastrous of all 
was the fact that no New Yorker had ever 



Julia Marlowe. 31 

heard of her. This alone would have settled 
her fate had everything else been in her 
favour. Some of the critics recognised talent 
in her acting ; Robert G. Ingersoll wrote a 
rapturous letter regarding her ; Lester Wal- 
lack testified to the promise her work gave ; 
but the public refused to have anything to 
do with her. It was a cruel experience, 
and one which Miss Marlowe did not soon 
forget. For years — even after her repu- 
tation had climbed into the metropolis — 
she shunned New York as she would a 
pestilence. 

Back to the provinces went the young 
actress to pass through a weary year of one 
night stands before she tried another large 
city. This time it was Boston. The date was 
December 3, 1888 ; the place was the Hollis 
Street Theatre, and the play was "Ingo- 
mar." Miss Marlowe's success was complete, 
so complete, in fact, that she was engaged 
for a return date at the Park Theatre the 



32 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

following spring. The repertory of the De- 
cember week included, besides " Ingomar," 
"The Hunchback," "The Lady of Lyons," 
" Twelfth Night," and " Romeo and Juliet." 
For the following spring engagement she 
added « As You Like It " to the list. The 
following year she first played " Pygmalion 
and Galatea." 

In 1 89 1 Miss Marlowe tried Beatrice in 
"Much Ado about Nothing." She was 
hardly equal to this brilliant character at 
first, but her authority increased with every 
performance until her conception at last be- 
came adequate. Her impersonation of the 
character, while vivacious and altogether 
charming, never seemed to reach the soul 
of this most sparkling and intellectual of 
Shakespearian women. Her Imogene in 
" Cymbeline," acted about the same time, was 
a more successful characterisation, abounding 
in sentiment and beautifully pathetic, though 
by no means tragically great. Constance in 



Julia Marlowe. 33 

" The Love Chase " came a year later, fol- 
lowed with Letitia Hardy in "The Belle's 
Stratagem " and two boys' parts, Charles 
Hart in "Rogues and Vagabonds" and 
"Chatterton." In 1894, Miss Marlowe at- 
tempted Lady Teazle in " School for Scan- 
dal " and " Colombe's Birthday," neither of 
which was a lasting success. In May of that 
year she was married to Robert Tabor. 

The season of 1895-96 saw Miss Marlowe 
as Kate Hardcastle in " She Stoops to Con- 
quer," and later in the elaborate and unfor- 
tunate revival of " King Henry IV.," in which 
the actress essayed the role of Prince Hal, a 
thoroughly virile character, entirely beyond 
the range of a woman. She is also remem- 
bered for her impersonation of Lydia Lan- 
guish in the star cast of " The Rivals," 
which was headed by Joseph Jefferson. 
Miss Marlowe's latest productions have 
shown a constantly increasing tendency to 
avoid the classic. They are " For Bonnie 



34 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Prince Charlie," "Romola," "The Countess 
Valeska," and " Colinette." 

Physically, Julia Marlowe is a brunette of 
the brown-haired, dark-eyed type. Just what 
colour her eyes are I really do not know, — for, 
a guess, dark brown, shading into black. They 
are large, of abiding charm, and wondrously 
expressive. She is rather above medium 
stature, though in certain roles she seems 
strangely undersized. The loveliness of her 
face is of expression rather than of mere 
feature, and it is emphatically a woman's 
face. On the stage she has unusual magnet- 
ism and especially winning femininity. This 
latter quality pervades all her characters, 
making them so delicately alluring and so 
peculiarly lovable that the judgment, even of 
an experienced observer, is very often led 
astray into unmerited enthusiasm. Always 
satisfying to a degree, and particularly de- 
lightful as a comedienne, she has never 
shown any unfathomable depth of tempera- 




JULIA MARLOWE 
As Colinette in " Colinette " 



Julia Marlowe. 35 

ment, nor has she yet achieved the really 
tragic. 

Her most popular Shakespearian character 
is probably Rosalind, an impersonation that 
is full of life and exuberance of spirits and 
of by-play entrancingly suggestive of mas- 
querading femininity. The lines she speaks 
with naturalness, and the music of her voice 
adds immeasurably to the beauty of the 
poetry. If there be any fault in her work, 
it is the extremely subtle one of failing to 
make Rosalind womanly as well as feminine. 

Miss Marlowe's Viola in " Twelfth Night " 
is a very fine study, indeed, one of the most 
nearly perfect impersonations in her Shake- 
spearian repertory. Viola is an essentially 
pathetic character over which continually 
hangs the sorrow of a hopeless love. Aside 
from a too evident burlesque of the duel 
scene with Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Miss 
Marlowe's conception is continuously tender 
and maidenly, breathing the essence of 



36 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

poetry and pregnant with a refined humour 
that is akin to tears. 

Her Juliet is wonderfully beautiful, — won- 
derfully pathetic even, especially in the 
potion scene, — but it is a characterisation 
that has always been found wanting in one 
essential. 

" Her nature is sympathetic with poetic 
sentiment and with humour in its purity, ,, 
wrote Elwyn A. Barron. "That which is 
sweetly ideal, gentle, touching, that which 
is light in mirth and prettily fanciful, has 
never, we believe, had a more delightful 
exponent than Miss Marlowe. She is ex- 
quisite, too, in pathos and effective in 
stronger emotions, but in the dignity of 
soul-mastering passion she is deficient." 

When a dramatic critic can find no other 
fault with an actress's Juliet, he invariably 
declares that she lacks passion ; and it is 
true that Miss Marlowe has failed to convey 
the idea of an overpowering love that is 



Julia Marlowe. 37 

the great element in Juliet's nature. Juliet's 
passion is far away from animal desire of 
the Carmen type. It is the poet's perfect 
love, the unattainable and undefinable ideal 
of devotion and purity held by human kind. 
Can such an idealistic conception be ex- 
pressed by means of the art of acting ? 
Undoubtedly it has been so expressed, not 
often, perhaps, but once is sufficient to prove 
that it is not impossible. Miss Marlowe her- 
self once said : " A full realisation of my 
ideal is still beyond my strength. When 
once it is wholly and permanently within 
my grasp, I shall then indeed deserve to 
be called a great artist." 

Miss Marlowe has not the rich old comedy 
style, as was plainly shown in her playing of 
Kate Hardcastle. It was in many respects 
a charming stage presence, but it was not 
an honest exhibition of acting. It was the 
actress's personality only that was ever in 
evidence. Miss Marlowe played with the 



3^ Famous Actresses of the Day. 

brilliancy of a virtuoso, and her Kate was 
very provoking and very captivating. But 
it was also artificial and affected. There 
was none of that innocent artlessness and 
little of that girlish recklessness to which 
is due Kate's imposition on Marlow. Her 
Kate was much too old, much too sober, 
and much too wise. 

Miss Marlowe demonstrated her expert- 
ness m light comedy in "Colinette," a "make- 
believe " sort of a play — almost a burlesque 
on life — which she carried to success by 
her own sweetly attractive individuality. Her 
acting, however, added nothing to a reputa- 
tion won by the hardest kind of work in the 
face of many difficulties, the reputation of 
being the most authoritative Shakespearian 
actress that we have. 




MRS. LEMOYNE 
As the Duchess in " Catherine " 



_»», 



CHAPTER III. 

SARAH COWELL LEMOYNE. 

Sarah Cowell LeMoyne is identified in 
the public mind with the role of the Dowager 
Duchess de Coutras in Henri Lavedan's 
comedy, " Catherine," and those that saw 
the play in this country will not soon for- 
get the womanly sympathy and the matronly 
tenderness with which she invested that very 
interesting character. If ever an actress 
lived a part, Mrs. LeMoyne lived the 
Duchess, and the fineness of her art, the 
sincerity of her sentiment, and the com- 
pleteness of her conception left absolutely 
no loop-hole through which could enter false 
touches and broken illusions. 

" Mrs. Sarah Cowell LeMoyne's assump- 
39 



40 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

tion of the Dowager Duchess de Coutras," 
wrote Henry Austin Clapp, " it is not absurd 
to say, in its appeal to the artistic sense, has 
in recent years seldom been surpassed upon 
our stage. Its suavity, directness, elegance, 
and distinction of style are remarkable in- 
deed. Practising, like Miss Annie Russell, 
a method never violent, seldom even vehe- 
ment, and, like her, almost never lifting her 
voice above an ordinary conversational tone, 
Mrs. LeMoyne, by the power of her pure 
and unaffected enunciation, of her vitally 
sympathetic tones, and of her frank and 
beautiful manners, at once convinces every 
auditor of the refinement, the genuineness, 
the breadth, and the loveliness of the 
Duchess's character. Whenever she moves 
or speaks, she charms and engages. All 
her dialogues are quiet, yet all are keenly 
interesting, and several of them are deeply 
stirring. Seldom is anything better wit- 
nessed here than her scenes in the first 



Sarah Cowell LeMoyne. 41 

act with the duke, her son, where her 
shrewdness, her sympathy, and her experi- 
ence of life are all in evidence as she 
listens to his confession of love for Cather- 
ine, and the intent to make Catherine his 
wife ; the mother's combined playfulness and 
gravity, the tactfulness of her words and 
ways, her high-bred grace and magnanimity, 
are all equally obvious and fine, and under 
them all an anxious maternal tenderness and 
yearning are shown with pathetic potency. 
Here is a piece of comedy acting done with 
that ideal touch, at once light and firm, easy 
and strong, which is characteristic of the 
best histrionic school. Mrs. LeMoyne's tri- 
umph with her audience was complete. At 
the close of every one of her scenes there 
was a stir of responsive delight and quick- 
ened sympathy, which ran through the mass 
of spectators as waves move over a field of 
wheat under the impact of a breeze." 

Yet Mrs. LeMoyne's stage experience has 



42 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

embraced perhaps six different characters, 
and has extended over only three seasons, 
one in the early eighties, when A. M. 
Palmer's Union Square Theatre Company 
was at the height of its artistic excellence, 
and the others within the last two years. 
With the Union Square Company Mrs. 
LeMoyne, who was then simply Sarah Cow- 
ell, appeared as the mother in " A Celebrated 
Case," as a maid in "The Banker's Daugh- 
ter," as the opera singer in " French Flats," 
and as an old woman in "The Danicheffs." 
This part was the first one in which she 
made any recognisable impression, and it 
was also the last one that she played for 
many years. She appeared in it first in 
Chicago, and when the company returned to 
New York Manager Palmer insisted that 
she should act it there. Now, New York 
was the actress's home, and for more than 
three hundred nights she had presented 
there the maid in "The Banker's Daugh- 



Sarah Cowell LeMoyne. 43 

ter." And now to come back as an old 
woman ! Surely that was too much. She 
would be the countess or anything else in 
the play except the old woman. Mr. Palmer 
was persistent, however, and Miss Cowell's 
connection with the stage ended right there, 
not to be renewed until the spring of 1898, 
when she accepted the role of Mrs. Lorimer 
in " The Moth and the Flame," a character 
in which she displayed the wonderful finesse 
that was so finely evident in " Catherine." 

"When I was a girl in my teens," said 
Mrs. LeMoyne, in speaking of her first stage 
experience, " I was acquainted with Madame 
Blavatsky. Before she left New York I got 
to know her very well. She had once told 
me that I reminded her in appearance of 
Rachel, and although I knew nothing in the 
world about Rachel, I set out to read her 
history and find out all I could about her. 
When I learned that she was an actress, I 
was more than ever determined to continue 



44 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

reciting, as I had been doing for the benefit 
of my friends, and as a result of that there 
came the idea of my becoming an actress. 
I knew nobody connected with the theatre ; 
my family had no associations of that kind, 
and there seemed to be very little prospect 
that I would ever accomplish my purpose. 
But I did ultimately get an introduction to 
Mr. Palmer, who was then at the Union 
Square Theatre. I read for him and Mr. 
Cazuran a scene from ' Henry VIII. ' He 
told me he had nothing for me just at that 
time. Finally, he asked me if I thought I 
could act any of the parts in * A Celebrated 
Case,' which was then the play at the 
theatre. I told him I thought I could act 
Agnes Booth's. She was playing the part 
of the wife in the prologue. When I men- 
tioned that role, Mr. Palmer looked astonished. 
But he gave it to me to study, and after 
awhile I had an opportunity to play it several 
times on the road. That was my first part, 



Sarah Cowell LeMoyne. 45 

and where I played it I cannot remember ; 
I was in too much of a whirl to pay attention 
to the names of towns. Afterward I joined 
the company and played the part of a maid. 
I was a realist in those days, and I remember 
that I insisted on wearing slippers without 
heels, because I thought those the appropri- 
ate shoes for a maid to wear. But I was 
applauded for a scene with John Strebelow, 
in which I showed sympathy for him in his 
troubles. In ' The Danicheffs' I was more 
successful as the old woman than in any 
other role I played during my first engage- 
ment. But it was that which led me to bring 
my theatrical life to an end for so many 
years." 

When Mrs. LeMoyne left Mr. Palmer, she 
gave up acting for good and began to teach 
elocution and to give readings. As a reader, 
she visited England in 1884, and met with 
much success in drawing-room entertainments 
in private residences. While there, she be- 






46 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

came acquainted, among other literary men, 
with the poet, Robert Browning, and later 
she was an important factor in the popular- 
ising of his works in this country. Her prin- 
cipal readings from Browning were " Count 
Gismond," "Time's Revenge," " Meeting at 
Night," "Herve Riel," and "Love among 
the Ruins." She was also very successful 
with the anonymous poem, so full of dramatic 
action and pathos, " The Engineer's Story," 
and also with Mary Mapes Dodge's dialect 
study, "Miss Maloney, on the Chinese 
Question." Mrs. LeMoyne had several 
offers to return to the stage while she was 
reading and teaching. Once she recited 
"Kentucky Belle" and "The Old Boat" 
before Sir Henry Irving, and in the little 
talk that followed he said that he would give 
her an engagement in his company the next 
day, if she cared to return to the stage. 
Lawrence Barrett also heard her read, and 
immediately offered her a part in " The Blot 



Sarah Cowell LeMoyne. 4? 

on the 'Scutcheon." These offers were 
quickly declined, however. 

" I think that most of my friends among 
the actors were uncertain of my abilities to 
act," said Mrs. LeMoyne. "I remember 
they were always amiable when I mentioned 
my desire to become an actress some day. 
But it was evident that they had very little 
confidence in the outcome. I was reminded 
of that when I saw in a box at the theatre, 
where I was appearing in 'The Moth and 
the Flame,' an actress who had once come 
to me for some lessons in diction. She was 
about to play a new role, and I was discuss- 
ing it with her. Something I said must 
have touched her sensitive artistic nature, 
for she said to me, suddenly, 'But, Mrs. 
LeMoyne, I did not come to you for lessons 
in acting.' « Oh, I understand,' I answered, 
with humility that was possibly exaggerated. 
' I couldn't possibly act myself.' I was 
rather pleased when I saw her in the au- 






48 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

dience, for the play went particularly well 
that night. 

"Those days of my life were of greater 
profit than they would have been had I re- 
mained an actress," she continued. " I saw 
all the great actors, and I read all that was 
good in literature. I believe now that noth- 
ing is better for the actor's art than a period 
of retirement, which gives him the opportun- 
ity to study the great ones of his profession 
and see just how he stands in reference to 
the other actors. It is as fatal to an actor 
as it is to anybody else to drop out of the 
foremost rank. He must always be ahead 
if he would keep the admiration and respect 
of the public, and it seems to me that only 
those that know what is going on about 
them are able to be up with the foremost." 

Mrs. LeMoyne's genius for the deline- 
ation of the middle-aged heroine is not 
exactly paralleled on the English-speaking 
stage. She understands thoroughly the 



Sarah Cowell LeMoyne. 49 

woman whose life has been chastened by- 
suffering, and whose sympathy for others 
has been sharpened by experiences that have 
taught her to judge the world honestly, intel- 
ligently, and lovingly. Her emotional power 
is exceptional, and in pathetic moments she 
displays perfect sincerity. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MINNIE MADDERN FISKE. 

Minnie Maddern Fiske's life story is 
unusual enough to be the invention of some 
fantastic writer of fiction. I was about to 
call it romantic, but that is about the last 
word to apply to those early experiences 
whose chief accompaniments seem to the 
average person to have been hardship and 
drudgery. Doubtless there were compensa- 
tions in an existence that began in the play- 
house and continued there almost constantly 
for twenty-four years ; in a babyhood passed 
with a " fly-by-night " theatrical troupe that 
toured the South and West in the days when 
a dining-room in some country roadhouse 
made a prime theatre ; in a childhood spent 
50 




MRS. FISKE 
As Tess in " Tess of the D'Urbervilles " 



Minnie Maddern Fiske. 5 1 

in acting one after another every juvenile 
part known to the drama of the early seven- 
enties ; in a girlhood which was a struggle 
to win success in uncongenial and inconse- 
quential roles. Such an experience is, indeed, 
unusual, but it is also to the unfortunate 
victim depressingly prosaic. Nevertheless, it 
brought forth an individuality that has made 
itself immensely felt in the American theatre ; 
produced a woman of independent purpose, 
who takes herself and her art seriously, 
whose views of life, as expressed in her art, 
are pessimistic, and whose humour inclines 
toward irony ; it developed an actress of 
strikingly original methods and of remark- 
able emotional power, an actress also of 
uncommon versatility, whose comedy is effer- 
vescent and sparkling, possessing a quality 
of wit that is bitingly keen and cruelly pene- 
trating. 

Mrs. Fiske was born in New Orleans in 
1866. Her maiden name was Marie Augusta 



52 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Davey, her father being Thomas Davey, a 
pioneer circuit manager in the South and 
West ; but from the first she was known as 
Minnie Maddern, after her mother, whose 
name was Lizzie Maddern, and who was 
herself an actress of some promise, and a 
musician of much ability. Mrs. Fiske's 
grandmother was an English girl of good 
family, who eloped with her music-teacher, 
and was, in consequence, cut off even with- 
out the proverbial shilling. The young 
couple, however, managed to exist somehow, 
and with the usual poor man's luck were 
blessed with a large family. There were 
seven children, besides father and mother, 
when the family immigrated to America, 
where the father formed a concert company, 
in which each of the youngsters played some 
instrument, and Lizzie Maddern, in a high 
comb and queer pantalettes, at the age of 
twelve, was the first cornet of the strolling 
band. It is a tradition in the family that 



Minnie Maddern Fiske. 53 

Lizzie Maddern at that age could score the 
music for the orchestra. 

Little Minnie Maddern made her appear- 
ance on the stage at a very early age and in 
a most unconventional fashion. Her mother, 
while playing in New Orleans, was accus- 
tomed to leave the child at a hotel in care of 
a coloured nurse, who, perceiving that the 
baby was a sound sleeper, became negligent 
in the fulfilment of her duties. One night, 
while the nurse was away enjoying herself 
with friends, the baby woke up. 

"I am sure that I remember it quite dis- 
tinctly," said Mrs. Fiske, in telling the story. 
"There was a dim light in the room — and I 
was alone. Oh, the horrible idea ! I had 
never, to my knowledge, been alone before 
in my life. First I was frightened ; then I 
was indignant. I scrambled out of bed and 
began tugging on what clothes I could find, 
crying bitterly all the time, and with but one 
thought, — to find my mother. I had once 



54 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

been taken to the theatre in the daytime, 
and I was determined to go there. At last, 
half -dressed, bareheaded, for my hat was in a 
big wardrobe and I would not have dared to 
open the door, I went out into the street. I 
have to this day a vivid recollection of how 
brilliant and interesting the streets were to 
my eyes that had never seen such sights be- 
fore. I forgot to cry, I forgot to be fright- 
ened, and I saw some fascinating things 
before a good-natured fellow picked me up, 
discovered my identity, and took me safely 
to the theatre. I recall distinctly being held 
by my new friend and identified at the box- 
office ; then being passed over to a boy who 
took me around to a narrow, dark door and 
carried me into a lumbery place and put me 
in a chair where I looked out into what 
seemed a bright, sunshiny world with queer 
trees and fairies. Just then I spied my 
mother. She was dressed like a fairy, and 
she was just coming out of a water-lily 



Minnie Maddern Fiske. 55 

— for it was the transformation scene of a 
spectacle. I was very much pleased with 
mamma's appearance. You see, I was a 
veritable child of the stage. I had no dis- 
approval, even at so young an age, of tights, 
even when they were on my mother. I 
slipped right out of that chair, and, before 
any one saw what I was going to do, I ran 
right to her and began explaining my nurse's 
treachery. I am told that I was received 
with applause, and that my first appearance, 
even though it was impromptu, was a success. 
It was a bit irregular, but it was an appear- 
ance, and I hadn't a touch, even, of stage 
fright." 

After that the child was kept in the the- 
atre, cradled in a big trunk in her mother's 
dressing-room. It was not long, however, 
before her mother fashioned her a Scotch 
costume, and she was sent on the stage 
between the tragedy and the farce to sing 
about "Jamie Coming over the Meadow," 



5 6 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

and to dance the Highland fling. From that 
time until her marriage to Harrison Grey 
Fiske in 1890, with the exception of a few 
months here and there spent in different 
schools, Minnie Maddern was continuously 
on the stage, 

Her first appearance in a play occurred 
when she was three years old. She played 
the Duke of York in Shakespeare's " Richard 
III." Who the Richard was Mrs. Fiske does 
not remember, but she told Miss Mildred 
Aldrich the following amusing story of an- 
other early experience : 

"I began playing at three, or I might 
really say at two, and before I was twelve 
I had in my father's strolling company acted 
an old woman's part, when the old woman 
was sick and there was no one else to do it. 
But I can tell you of a very funny time when 
I played with Barry Sullivan. You know I 
did all the children in Shakespeare's plays 
with him, and often acted more than one 






Minnie Maddern Fiske. 57 

part. I remember distinctly the night that 
he first played < Macbeth.' I must tell you 
first, that you may understand better, that 
the theatre was not to me what it is to chil- 
dren who are taken into it when they are old 
enough to realise it. I was almost born in 
it. I do not remember a time when it was 
not my home. It had no glamour to me. I 
knew no fear of it nor any great emotion 
about it. I just loved it naturally as other 
children love brothers and sisters. 

" I was to play one of the apparitions 
in ' Macbeth.' I did not care much about 
learning parts ; I had to be bribed to do 
that. On this occasion the piece was, as 
usual, put on in a hurry, and at rehearsal 
I stuck hopelessly in my speech. But, 
though I was only three, I had the assur- 
ance of an old stager. I made the stock 
declaration that I should be all right at 
night. Well, at night I wasn't 'all right,' 
but that didn't trouble me. I was put on 



58 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

the trap, and a funny little ghost I must 
have been, with my bristling red curls and 
my nightgown, as, with a branch in my 
hand, I appeared before Sullivan, and with 
the temerity of an old actor began to fake 
my lines. I got out something about like 
this, and my voice must have been pretty 
shrill, for I was greeted with laughter : ' Be 
lion mettled, proud, and take no heed there 
perspirers are.' The audience shrieked, and 
Barry hissed between his teeth, 'Take her 
off ! Take her off ! ' and I was unexpectedly 
lowered out of sight, quite disgusted, for I 
was very well satisfied with myself. Poor 
Sullivan ! I remember he took me on his 
knee after the act, and plaintively remon- 
strated with me. He offered me lollipops if 
I would learn the lines before the next day. 
I had not then made the acquaintance of 
lollipops, but they sounded good, and I got 
my lines — and got the lollipops, for Barry 
was a man of his word," 






- Minnie Maddern Fiske. 59 

When Laura Keene made her great pro- 
duction of Boucicault's " Hunted Down/' 
Minnie Maddern was the Willie Lee, being 
then but five or six years old. She later 
played Prince Arthur in the notable revival 
of "King John" at Booth's Theatre, New 
York, with John McCullough, J. B. Booth, 
and Agnes Booth in the cast. Before attain- 
ing her fourteenth year she had acted many 
of the leading juvenile parts, and occasion- 
ally old women's parts, so remarkable was 
her adaptability. Long before she wore 
long dresses off the stage, she had assumed 
them in the theatre. When but twelve years 
of age she played Francois in " Richelieu," 
and Louise in " The Two Orphans." When 
thirteen she assumed old woman parts with 
astonishing success. 

She was the original little Fritz in J. K. 
Emmett's New York productions of " Fritz " 
at both Wallack's Theatre and at Niblo's ; 
she played Paul in " The Octoroon " in the 



60 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

great Philadelphia production at the Chest- 
nut Street Theatre ; she played Franko in 
"Guy Mannering," when Mrs. Waller was 
the Meg Mer riles ; she was the Sybil in 
Carlotta LeClercq's production of "The 
Sheep in Wolf's Clothing ; " she played 
Mary Morgan in "Ten Nights in a Bar- 
room," when Yankee Locke produced it in 
Boston ; she did the child in Oliver Doud 
Byron's spectacular production of "Across 
the Continent." She was at the Chestnut 
Street Theatre with E. L. Davenport, and 
played the child's parts in his repertory. 
When Augustin Daly produced " Monsieur 
Alphonse" at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, 
New York, she was the Adrienne ; when 
Mrs. Scott-Siddons first played " Frou-Frou " 
she was the Georgie. She played both 
Heinrich and Minna in " Rip Van Winkle," 
and she was the Eva of Bidwell's produc- 
tion of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." With Daly 
she also played the boy's part in "The 



Minnie Maddern Fiske. 61 

Bosom Friend," and Alfred in the first road 
production of " Divorce." Other parts were 
the child in "The Chicago Fire," produced 
in New York ; Hilda in Emmett's " Karl and 
Hilda ; " Ralph Rackstraw in Hooley's Juve- 
nile Pinafore Company ; and Clip in " A 
Messenger from Jarvis Section." At the 
age of ten she acted the Sun God in David 
Bidwell's "The Witch," at New Orleans, 
and she also appeared in "Aladdin," "The 
White Fawn," and other spectacular pieces. 

Mrs. Fiske's recollections of Lucille West- 
ern, with whom she played a number of 
children's parts, are very vivid. 

"I recall that in one play in which I 
appeared with her," said Mrs. Fiske, " I 
played the part of a little boy who died. 
I could not forget if I tried that haggard 
and despairing face that used to bend above 
me, as my little body became limp and still 
in my simulation of death — and with chil- 
dren the emotion of acting is much stronger 



62 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

than most people think. After my eyes 
closed there always seemed to me a long, 
horrible silence. Then she grasped my arm 
with a force that well-nigh made me scream. 
' Willie ! Willie ! ' she called, quickly, harshly, 
but with such entreaty that I found it diffi- 
cult not to open my eyes and reply. Child 
though I was, I could feel her suffer. Then 
she lay me down, oh, so carefully, so gently, 
and through my closed lids I felt her look 
at me, just as I felt, rather than heard, her 
whisper, < He is dead.' I heard the curtain 
roll down ; I heard the cheers of the audi- 
ence, but the great woman seemed to think 
only of me. ' My darling, my darling,' she 
cried, as I sat up cheerfully in my property 
cot, ' did I hurt your little baby arm ? I 
am so forgetful, so rough. I know I hurt 
you.' l Not a bit,' I said, stoutly, though I 
could hardly move the poor abused member. 
Then Lucille Western laughed with delight, 
as she called, « I say, Pike, this girl's got the 



Minnie Maddern Fiske. 63 

stuff in her,' and she hit me a thump on 
the back, almost as painful as my wrenched 
arm. We have lived by the age of Lucille 
Westerns, but they were great in their time." 
At the age of sixteen Miss Maddern be- 
came a star. At that time Lotta, Maggie 
Mitchell, and Annie Pixley were at the 
height of their success in a variety of dra- 
matic fare called " protean pieces," plays, or 
rather entertainments, that depended for 
popularity entirely on the leading performer's 
personality. Some undiscerning person, de- 
ceived by Miss Maddern' s girlish figure, 
curly red hair, and odd individuality, thought 
that he saw in her a second Lotta, and ac- 
cordingly brought her out at the Park Thea- 
tre, New York, May 20, 1882, in "Fogg's 
Ferry." She was unsuited for that kind of 
work, and what impression she made was 
due to her thorough stage training. In 1883 
she appeared in "The Storm Child." In 
1885 she produced Steele Mackaye's ver- 



64 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

sion of Sardou's " Andrea," which he called 
" In Spite of All." "The Child Wife" and 
"The Puritan Maid" followed in 1886, 
" Caprice " in 1887, " Lady Jemima " in 1888, 
and " Featherbrain" in 1889. 

In March, 1890, she became the wife of 
Harrison Grey Fiske, of the New York Dra- 
matic Mirror, and retired from the stage for 
three years. It is not generally known that 
this was her second venture into matrimony. 
When only a girl she was married, contrary 
to the desires of her friends, to LeGrande 
White, a musician, who managed her first star- 
ring tour and from whom she was afterward 
divorced. During her retirement Mrs. Fiske 
acted occasionally in benefit performances. 
She also did considerable literary work, 
writing a number of short stories and several 
plays, among them " A Light from St. 
Agnes," first played by herself in December, 
1895; "Not Guilty," "Grandpapa," "The 
Rose," played by the Rosina Yokes company 



Minnie Maddern Fiske. 6$ 

with Felix Morris in the leading character ; 
"The Dream of Matthew Wayne," "John 
Doe," dramatised from a sketch by Mr. 
Fiske ; " Fontenelle," written in collabora- 
tion with Mr. Fiske and produced by James 
O'Neill, and "The Countess Roudine," in 
which Mrs. Fiske collaborated with Paul 
Kester, and which was produced by Modjeska. 
Mrs. Fiske's return to the stage in the 
fall of 1893 was signalised by a remarkable 
impersonation of Nora in Ibsen's " A Doll's 
House," which immediately attracted critical 
attention. She then produced in November 
in Boston a play by her husband, called 
" Hester Crewe." This was a disastrous 
failure, and two years more of private life 
followed, when she again started out, touring 
the West and South, playing at first Marie 
Deloche in "The Queen of Liars," an adapta- 
tion of Daudet's "La Menteuse." This 
was followed with productions of " A Doll's 
House," Daudet's " A White Pink," her own 



66 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

"A Light from St Agnes," Dumas's " La 
Femme de Claude," Sardou's "Divorcons," 
and " A Right to Happiness," afterward 
called " Love Finds the Way." On March 
2, 1897, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New 
York, she made her greatest success in 
Lorimer Stoddard's dramatisation of Thomas 
Hardy's novel "Tess of the D'Urbervilles." 
Mrs. Fiske continued to be the same assidu- 
ous producer last season, during which she 
brought out Mrs. Oscar Beringer's " A Bit 
of Old Chelsea," Horace B. Fry's "Little 
Italy," a little one-act tragedy of more than 
ordinary worth and a realistic study of a bit 
of metropolitan life never before presented 
in the theatre, " Frou-Frou," and " Magda." 

Mrs. Fiske's "Tess" is a personation of 
tremendous intensity and startling realism. 
Its emotional phases are expressed with the 
utmost quietness, but with a power that 
never fails to reach the heart of the most 
unimpressible spectator. It is a marvellous 



Minnie Maddern Fiske. 67 

exhibition of the inherent force of suppression. 
The crescendo in Mrs. Fiske' s characterisa- 
tion is remarkable ; there is constantly in- 
creasing suspense and continually growing 
emotional force until the break comes just 
after the murder of Alec. The pitiful seri- 
ousness and the pathetic happiness of the 
woman in her love for Angel Clare ; her 
realisation after marriage that her disgrace 
is still her own secret ; her confession and 
that despairing plea, " Don't leave me ! 
Please, don't leave me ! " the desperation 
that drives her again to Alec, and finally the 
killing of the wretch, — all these are great 
moments with the actress, each contributing 
its exact proportion to the unity of her 
creation. The person that sees " Tess " for 
the first time is so moved by the tragedy 
that is passing on the stage that he takes 
little account of the actress's art, an involun- 
tary tribute that he pays to her spontaneity 
and naturalness. 



68 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Mrs. Fiske's ability in comedy is splendidly 
shown in " Divorcons." She acts the drama 
with a refined abandon that is positively 
captivating, making Cyprienne deliciously 
capricious and delightfully feminine. There 
is a piquancy about her performance that is 
difficult to describe, and a zest in the way 
she makes her points that establishes them 
with wonderful clearness. 



CHAPTER V. 

IDA CONQUEST. 

Ida Conquest made her first appearance 
as a professional actress with Alexander 
Salvini in 1892 at a special matinee perform- 
ance at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, of 
" Rohan, the Silent," in which she played 
Isobel. A few weeks previous to that she had 
gained considerable notice by her work in two 
dramas acted at the Columbia Theatre, Bos- 
ton, by students of the American Academy 
of Dramatic Arts, and she was also well 
known in that city as an amateur actress. 
Her first stage experience, however, began 
when she was only eight years old as Little 
Buttercup in the Boston Museum juvenile 
production of " Pinafore," in which she ap- 
peared over three hundred times. 
69 



Jo Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Miss Conquest is a Boston girl, the 
daughter of Thomas Conquest, a prominent 
merchant of that city. She is a blonde of 
extremely attractive features, with golden, 
gleaming hair and deep blue eyes. She has 
not the unexpressive baby face, so often asso- 
ciated with the blonde type of feminine beauty, 
but there is an abundance of character in her 
finely chiselled nose and firmly rounded chin. 
She is tall, lithe, and graceful, — well set up, 
as the West Pointer would say. 

After her success with Mr. Salvini Miss 
Conquest was engaged by A. M. Palmer, 
with whom she remained until his company 
was disbanded. Coming under Daniel Froh- 
man's management, she was seen as Phyllis 
Lee in "The Charity Ball," Carey in "Ala- 
bama," Sybil in "The Dancing Girl," and 
in "Americans Abroad." In 1895 she be- 
came a member of Charles Frohman's Empire 
Theatre company, with which she acted 
Musette in " Bohemia," Justine Emptage in 






Ida Conquest. *j\ 

" The Benefit of a Doubt," Lady Belton in 
" Marriage," Amy Chilworth in "Liberty 
Hall," Renee de Cochefort (also played by 
Viola Allen) in " Under the Red Robe," and 
Babiole in "The Conquerors." She also 
played in London in " Too Much Johnson " 
with William Gillette. 

Last season Miss Conquest met with 
great success in Boston in Mr. Gillette's 
delightful farce, " Because She Loved Him 
So," creating the part of the jealous wife 
when that play was produced at the Boston 
Museum in December, 1898. She displayed 
splendid abilities as a light comedy actress, 
developing the character along mock-heroic 
lines, and playing it with a seriousness that 
was keenly ludicrous and yet absolutely with- 
out a touch of burlesque. Her jealous tirades 
were full of unconscious humour, and she 
walked through the most absurd situations 
with a serenity that added tenfold to their 
ridiculousness. 



CHAPTER VI. 

BLANCHE WALSH. 

Blanche Walsh was for a number of 
years estimated as a more than ordinarily 
capable actress, but not until she fell heiress 
last season to the Sardou drama, with which 
the late Fanny Davenport had been identi- 
fied in this country, were the breadth and 
force and fine dramatic quality of her talent 
discovered. Miss Walsh was the leading 
lady of a Denver stock company when 
she received the " Antony and Cleopatra " 
manuscript and a notice to report in New 
York for rehearsals at the earliest possi- 
ble moment. She closed with the Denver 
Company on Wednesday and arrived in New 
York the following Friday, letter perfect in a 
72 



Blanche Walsh. 73 

part of unusual length. " Fedora " and " La 
Tosca " were mastered in the same marvellous 
fashion, for Miss Walsh is what stage folks 
term a wonder as a " quick study." When she 
took the heroine's role in " Secret Service " 
at short notice, it was stated that she required 
only ten hours thoroughly to acquire a part. 

It is too late a day to find fault with the 
strongly theatrical flavour of the Sardou plays 
of the past ten years. Their artificiality, 
sensationalism, and claptrap are apparent. 
Nevertheless they are an effective medium 
for the variety of acting of which Sarah 
Bernhardt is the extreme exponent, acting 
that is entirely art, and which makes its 
effects by using the body as a kind of emo- 
tional instrument. The theory is that an 
emotion is first of all mentally conceived 
and then mechanically expressed by the per- 
fectly trained body. It allows little for spon- 
taneity, and it scorns absolutely the actor 
who "loses himself in his part." 



74 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

When I say that Miss Walsh is a splendid 
example of this school of acting, I give her 
great praise. I certainly never saw Sardou's 
Cleopatra played better than she played it, 
not even by the divine Sarah herself. I do 
not mean to imply that Miss Walsh is the 
mistress of the art of acting that Bernhardt 
is, for such a statement would be absurd. 
But the Sardou Cleopatra, which Bern- 
hardt's great art only tended to cheapen, 
Miss Walsh, because of greater tempera- 
mental sympathy, perhaps, was able to make 
a living, breathing being. It was the human 
quality in Miss Walsh's conception that was 
its most striking feature. Hers was a Cleo- 
patra easily understood, a Cleopatra that won 
sympathy, a quality I never before found in 
this Sardou character. In physical appear- 
ance Miss Walsh almost personifies passion, 
for her beauty is of a warm Southern type, 
her hair of shining jet, and her eyes black 
and burning. Often in modern roles she has 



Blanche Walsh. 75 

seemed cold and statuesque, but her Cleo- 
patra, while queenly, was warm-blooded and 
fervid. 

In " La Tosca " and " Fedora " Miss Walsh 
was equally successful, her Fedora particu- 
larly being a most beautiful picture. The 
"strong" scene at the end of the third act 
was powerfully played, and her portrayal of 
the woman sacrificing her reputation to save 
her lover's life (a Frenchy conception, by the 
way, that does not convincingly appeal to 
an American audience) was very vivid. The 
death scene was realistic and exceedingly 
artistic. It did not horrify ; rather say it 
grieved. 

Blanche Walsh is a New York girl, the 
daughter of Thomas Power Walsh, at one 
time the warden of the Tombs, and up to 
the time of his deatji in June, 1899, a well- 
known character of the famous Sixth Ward. 
She was born on January 4, 1873, and went 
to Public School No. 50 until she was gradu- 



J 6 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

ated in 1886. Her first public appearance 
occurred in June, 1887, at a benefit perform- 
ance in the Windsor Theatre. Miss Walsh 
played Desdemona, and the occasion was 
in many respects a memorable one, for the 
whole East Side was interested in the 
debut of " Fatty " Walsh's girl as an 
actress. 

Her first professional engagement was 
with Thomas McDonough in a small part 
in the melodrama, " Siberia." When she 
was only sixteen years old she was en- 
gaged to play Olivia in Marie Wainwright's 
production of "Twelfth Night," and she re- 
mained with Miss Wainwright three seasons, 
appearing as Zamora in " The Honeymoon," 
Florence Marygold in "My Uncle's Will," 
Madeline in " Frederic Lemaitre," Grace 
Harkaway in " London Assurance," and 
Queen Elizabeth in "Amy Robsart." Her 
Elizabeth was really a remarkable imperson- 
ation, especially when one considered that 



Blanche Walsh. JJ 

Miss Walsh at the time was only nineteen 
years old. It was characterised by a dignity 
majestic and regal, and a beauty of face and 
figure that certainly never belonged to the 
original of the character. Miss Walsh de- 
servedly received much praise, and as a 
result she took a step forward in her 
profession. 

Under Charles Frohman's management 
Miss Walsh created the role of Diana 
Stockton in Bronson Howard's "Aristoc- 
racy," produced in September, 1892, and 
continued with this play for two seasons. 
She next appeared as Kate Kennion in "The 
Girl I Left behind Me," and on January 1, 
1895, joined Nat Goodwin, playing the hero- 
ines in " A Gilded Fool," " In Mizzoura," 
"David Garrick," "The Nominee," "The 
Gold Mine," and "Lend Me Five Shillings." 
After this came a season of summer stock in 
Washington, during which time she had the 
leading parte in "Pink Dominoes," "My 



7 8 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Awful Dad," "American Assurance," "My 
Wife's Mother," and also played Romeo in 
E. A. Lancaster's one-act piece, " Romeo's 
First Love." This was a curious little play, 
founded on Romeo's unreciprocated love for 
Rosaline, referred to in the first act of 
"Romeo and Juliet." The author endeav- 
oured to imagine scenes that might have 
taken place between Rosaline and Romeo, 
just previous to the time when Romeo ac- 
companied Benvolio and Mercutio to the 
Capulet's ball and there met Juliet. Besides 
acting Romeo, Miss Walsh superintended 
the production of the play, stage-managed 
it, selected the costumes, and drilled the 
company. 

She was next heard of as the adventuress, 
Mrs. Bulford, in "The Great Diamond Rob- 
bery," produced in New York City in 1895. 
In November she assumed the part of 
Trilby at the Garden Theatre, New York, 
and played it for the remainder of the 



Blanche Walsh. 79 

season. This was another instance of a 
remarkably quick study. She was coming 
from a rehearsal at noon when she was told 
that Virginia Harned, who, by the way, 
was the original stage Trilby, was ill, and 
there was no one to play the character at 
the afternoon performance, which began 
at two o'clock. It hardly seemed possible 
that Miss Walsh could do more than read 
the part, yet at two o'clock she went on, 
seemingly letter perfect, and acted as if she 
had had days instead of minutes to prepare 
herself for the role. 

Rejoining Nat Goodwin's company, she 
went with him to Australia, assuming all 
the characters she had previously played 
with him, and in addition acting Lydia 
Languish in "The Rivals," and Louise in 
"Gringoire." Returning to America, in 
October, 1896, she originated the part of 
Margaret Neville in " Heartease," with 
Palmer's stock company. In January, Miss 



So Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Walsh played in " Straight from the Heart," 
in New York, appearing in the dual role of 
the brother and sister, Harold and Clara 
Nugent. 

She was then called upon to take at short 
notice the character of Edith Varney in 
William Gillette's "Secret Service." She 
saw the play for the first time on a Tuesday 
evening, and with one rehearsal played the 
part the following night, and for the re- 
mainder of the Boston engagement, sailing 
for England May 5, 1897, and opening 
with " Secret Service," at the Adelphi 
Theatre, London. 

On her return to America she played for 
two weeks with " Secret Service," at the 
Empire Theatre, New York, then with Sol 
Smith Russell in " A Bachelor's Romance," at 
the Garden Theatre. In January, 1898, she 
returned to the Empire Theatre, playing 
Jeanne Marie in "The Conquerors." On 
May twentieth, she joined the Herald Square 



Blanche Walsh. Si 

stock company. She next became leading 
lady of the Manhattan Beach Stock Com- 
pany of Denver, which position she left for 
her starring tour in the Sardou drama with 
Melbourne MacDowell. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ANNIE RUSSELL. 

In England they called Annie Russell 
" the Duse of the English-speaking stage." 
This appellation, flattering though it may 
seem, does not convey a correct idea of Miss 
Russell's personality. It is true that in 
the superficial aspects of her art, in her 
method of physical expression, in the quiet- 
ness of her acting, and in her freedom from 
merely conventional pantomime, Miss Rus- 
sell does remind one of the great Italian ; 
but in the fundamental factors of individual- 
ity and temperament, the two are widely dif- 
ferent. Duse is an actress of tremendous 
emotional power, a woman of suffering, the 

epitome of passion and tragedy ; Miss Rus- 
82 




ANNIE RUSSELL 
As Catherine in " Catherine 



Annie Russell. 83 

sell, on the other hand, is a tender, sensitive 
plant, pathetic rather than emotional, and she 
no more suggests passion than an iceberg 
suggests the tropics. Duse, too, is entirely 
out of sympathy with the spirit of comedy, 
while Miss Russell has a quaint, delicate 
humour that is like a burst of sunshine on 
an April day. Thoroughly honest and sin- 
cere, loving and believing in her art, sweetly 
womanly and beautifully sympathetic by na- 
ture, Annie Russell stands alone as a subtle 
portrayer of sentiment, that keenly sensitive 
emotion which a false touch so quickly trans- 
forms into mawkishness and ridicule. 

Miss Russell was born in 1864, in Liver- 
pool, England, but went with her family to 
Canada when she was very young. None 
of her family ever had anything to do with 
the stage, and her becoming an actress was 
largely a matter of financial necessity. " It 
never entered my head as a girl that I should 
ever be an actress," said Miss Russell, in 



84 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

speaking of her early life. " If I had uttered 
such a thought I should at once have received 
a mild rebuke from my mother, who at that 
time shared the almost universal prejudice 
against the stage of country people of her 
generation. I am sure she would have 
fainted if any one had told her that not only 
her two daughters, prim little girls, but also 
baby Tommie — afterward one of the best 
known of the Little Lord Fauntleroys, but 
then just beginning to lisp his first words — 
would in after years be ' stage folk.' 

"From a little child," added Miss Russell, 
"my ambition was to be an authoress. My 
first and only attempt in the realms of liter- 
ature was received in terms of unstinted 
praise by the few friends that were permitted 
to read the manuscript. After a great deal 
of thought as to which of the weekly papers 
should be allowed to launch a new star on 
the literary firmament, I sent my story to a 
well-known periodical, accompanied, more as 



Annie Russell. 85 

a matter of form than anything else, with 
stamps for its return. After two weeks of 
anxious waiting, one morning I received a 
suspiciously thick package, bearing in the 
corner the name of the paper to which I had 
sent my story. I hurried up-stairs to my 
own little room, imagining all kinds of causes 
for such a lengthy reply. Perhaps they 
wanted me to write another and longer story, 
and had sent me a rough outline of the plot, 
together with further instructions. 'Yes, 
that must be it,' I thought. I broke the 
seal, opened the folded sheets and was con- 
fronted by my own story, together with a 
printed slip informing me that my manuscript 
was returned, not necessarily because of lack 
of literary merit, but it was not exactly suited 
to their pages. It was a death-blow to my 
literary ambitions. I laid the story away in 
a bureau drawer, and I never was guilty of 
a second offence." 

Miss Russell's fondness for the stage was 



86 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

developed by amateur theatricals, and her 
first appearance was at a church fair. The 
leading woman in the play that was to be 
presented was taken ill at the last moment, 
and Annie Russell, then a bit of a girl with 
a reputation among her schoolmates for 
rapid memorising, was called into service. 
She surprised herself by being the hit of the 
piece. Then she became a member of a 
dramatic club, and from that to the profes- 
sional stage proved to be but a step. The 
circumstances of her debut at the age of ten 
years Miss Russell relates as follows : 

" Miss Rose Eytinge was coming to Mon- 
treal to play ' Miss Multon,' and as she car- 
ried only one child to play the boy, Paul, 
she wrote to the local manager, requesting 
him to engage a girl for the part of Jeanne 
and to have her perfect by the time of the 
star's arrival. The manager advertised for 
a young girl, mamma took me down, and in 
the end I was given the part. I need scarcely 



Annie Russell. 87 

say I was very proud, for it was quite long 
and important. Miss Eytinge arrived, and 
I was summoned to rehearsal. When she 
saw me she was dreadfully put out. She 
sent for the manager. 'What's this?' she 
cried, pointing to me. ' The child you asked 
me to get,' he answered, meekly. * I said a 
girl, not a child. Go and get me a girl, or 
a young woman who can play a girl. Get 
me somebody.' The manager protested that 
the desired article was not to be found in 
Montreal. < Don't tell me that,' returned 
Miss Eytinge. ' Go and scour the town,' 
and then she reiterated her formula, ' Get 
me somebody.' 

"The full significance of this scene had 
slowly dawned upon me. I retired in the 
wings and set up a dismal howling. ' Come 
here, child,' said Miss Eytinge, whose atten- 
tion had been attracted — it couldn't well 
help having been attracted — by my vigorous 
outburst of grief. ' Do you want to play 



88 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

this part very much ? ' I assured her I did. 
'Well, if you have learned it, let me hear 
you.' She went through the lines with me 
and she seemed satisfied. Of course Jeanne 
ought really to be about thirteen or fourteen, 
but I pleased her, and she arranged with 
mamma to take me into her company for the 
remainder of the season. When that closed 
she advised that I should go to New York. 
The advice was followed, and I soon got an 
engagement with that stage children's cata- 
pult, Haverly' s juvenile 'Pinafore.' At first 
I was only in the chorus, but afterward 
I sang Josephine. I was two years with 
Haverly." 

When Miss Russell left Haverly she ob- 
tained an engagement with E. A. McDowell 
to play in the West Indies, and she appeared 
as everything from young girls to old women. 
" I shouldn't have had as much experience 
in five years in a city theatre," she said. 
Her first important engagement was as Es- 



Annie Russell. 89 

meralda at the Madison Square Theatre, New- 
York, when she was sixteen years old. How 
she successfully fooled the stage manager, 
and was engaged for the title role, is best 
told in her own words : 

" My dresses even then were not very 
long, and my hair flowed down my back. 
The manager looked down on me from his 
towering height, and decided in his wisdom 
that I was too youthful. He and I only 
exchanged a few words, and as I felt sure 
that among the multitude of applicants he 
would not remember me, I determined to 
play a little trick. So I went home, put on 
a long dress, did my hair up neatly, and, 
assuming as ancient and demure an expres- 
sion as I could, went to see him again. He 
fell into the snare, and I got the part." 

"Esmeralda" was one of the great suc- 
cesses of stage history. Miss Russell, her- 
self, appeared in the play about nine hundred 
times, 350 of them in New York. She gave 



90 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

up the part in 1882 when she was married 
to Eugene Wiley Presbrey. Her next ven- 
ture was in another great success, " Hazel 
Kirke." After that she played Fusha 
Leach in "Moths," but her attempt to carry 
off the breezy American girl visiting Euro- 
pean watering-places was more diverting 
than successful. Later came Maggie, the 
Highland lassie in Gilbert's " Engaged ; " 
Lady Vavir in Gilbert's fairy-like comedy, 
" Broken Hearts ; " Sylvia Spencer in " Our 
Society," and Ada Houghton in " Sealed 
Instructions." 

But her greatest success, next to " Esmer- 
alda," was in " Elaine," which was produced 
at the Madison Square Theatre in Decem- 
ber, 1887. The drama was by Harry Ed- 
wards and George Parsons Lathrop, and 
it was given a remarkable production and 
a memorable cast, in which were, among 
others, Alexander Salvini, Marie Burroughs, 
Minnie Seligiman, who made her debut in 



Annie Russell. 91 

this play, and E. M. Holland. "Elaine," 
however, pictorial as it was, could hardly be 
called a success, but regarding Miss Russell's 
work another verdict must be recorded. 
" No one who ever saw that play," said a 
Boston critic, " needs to be reminded of Miss 
Russell's performance of the title role. The 
word exquisite is not misapplied in speaking 
of it. Bostonians had in their imaginations 
an ideal of the appearance of Elaine, inspired 
by Rosenfeld's painting, but his Elaine was 
much less spirituelle than the one that Miss 
Russell presented. The Elaine of the painting 
was a robust, healthy, but beautiful creature. 
The Elaine of Annie Russell was the ethe- 
real being that a breath might have blown 
away, and who looked as if she might indeed 
fade away to death as her heart broke. In 
no part that Annie Russell ever attempted 
was she so completely lost as in Elaine. It 
was a most complete and harmonious, a most 
poetic yet real performance." 



92 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Miss Russell had decided opinions about 
Elaine, as, indeed, she has about all her 
characters. When asked if she considered 
it the most satisfactory part that she had 
ever played, she answered : 

" I am not quite sure it was. I never felt 
absolutely convinced that I succeeded in 
doing what I hoped to with the part, or all 
that could be done. I tried to avoid what is 
usually called 'acting,' and to impersonate 
Elaine, if you understand what I mean. I 
wanted to live, move, breathe the part, — to 
be, in fact, Elaine. I was convinced that the 
simpler I was in such a role the more artis- 
tic I would be. But I was never wholly 
satisfied. To me there were always touches 
in it that seemed theatrical. But then, I am 
my own most severe critic, and the moments 
of elation in which one feels an inward con- 
viction that one has been right and achieved 
worthily what one wished, moments which 
all players must have, come very rarely to 



Annie Russell. 93 

me. Yet I am very ambitious. No actress 
was ever more anxious to have things to do, 
parts that demand something of me, that I 
can think out and then give life to out of 
myself. But such opportunities, I need not 
tell you, come but seldom to any of us." 

Miss Russell's last appearance before her 
retirement from the stage in 1889, on 
account of ill health, was in " Captain 
Swift," made famous in London by Beer- 
bohm Tree. Five years of pain and suffering 
followed, and for a long time it was not ex- 
pected that she would ever act again. She 
recovered her health, however, and 1894 
returned to the theatre, presenting first a 
one-act play called "Lethe." Then she was 
seen in "The New Woman" and "The 
Fatal Card." Then she became Nat Good- 
win's leading lady, appearing as Ruth in 
" Ambition," Ada Ingot in " David Gar- 
rick," and in "The Gilded Fool." The fol- 
lowing year she produced the one-act play, 



94 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

" Dangerfield, '95," which made a great hit, 
and starred in " Sue," a Bret Harte drama of 
sentiment, which was also very successful. 
These two plays she took to London in the 
spring of 1898, and both were kindly received. 
Miss Russell's account of her London ex- 
periences is amusing : 

" I arrived in England Saturday and made 
my London debut the following Thursday. 
In between I came to the realisation that I 
was to be the last straw. Every one told 
me there had been so many American actors, 
— that, in fact, the English were antagonistic 
to this continuous American invasion, — and 
here was I, the final blow ! Then, to add 
to my discomfort, — my terror, — I had made 
a tour of the London theatres. I was to 
appear in * Dangerfield, '95.' In London, 
one-act plays are literally curtain raisers. 
No one thinks of paying any attention. I 
had made up my mind to be a failure when 
I stepped on the stage. It slanted like the 



Annie Russell. 95 

stages of the olden time. It was old and 
bad little ridges over it. Before the curtain 
went up I could hear the pit making remarks. 
They talked about American cheek. I ap- 
peared, and — well, the next day I knew I 
was a success. It was after seeing i Sue ' 
that they called me ' the Duse of the English- 
speaking stage.' Am I proud of that ? Well, 
rather. They said, too, that I had only a 
very slight American accent. 

"The last night," continued Miss Russell, 
" I made a speech, my first and only one, and 
I was so overcome that I couldn't finish it. 
They called me out six times. They shouted 
and cheered. They cried, * Come back ! ' 
And then I said — well, I don't know what 
I said, except that I'd never made a speech 
before and didn't know how." 

Last season Miss Russell appeared in 
Henri Lavedan's " Catherine," being a mem- 
ber of, rather than a star in, the most perfectly 
balanced cast seen for many a year in an 



g6 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

American theatre. Miss Russell's Catherine 
was a splendid conception, wonderfully finely 
drawn ; a girl, quiet, shy, and gentle, pictured 
with humour inexpressibly delicate, with the 
quintessence of refinement and with pathos 
profoundly moving ; later, a woman of flint- 
like stability of purpose, of independence, 
pride, and resolution. The successful produc- 
tion of such a work as " Catherine " was 
a notable event. Although the product of 
a French author, the drama had the un- 
usual merit of being a world play ; that is to 
say, its theme is unrestricted in its applica- 
tion to human life. In any land where there 
is social intercourse, among any people where 
there is wealth and where there is poverty, 
" Catherine " would be understood. Yet the 
story, which is simply that of a nobleman's 
marriage to a poor music teacher, and of the 
misunderstandings and unhappiness that re- 
sult from that marriage, is treated entirely 
from a Gallic standpoint. The plot is trite, 



Annie Russell. 97 

to be sure, but it is true to life. The action 
is quiet but realistic, and the characters are 
drawn with remarkable fidelity to nature 
It is a regrettable fact that the last act of 
the play is weak, due largely to the fact that 
the question of caste, which the playwright 
raises, admits of no general answer. The 
drama is unique in that it presents a heroine 
with whom the majority of the audience is 
not in sympathy. The character of Catherine 
is also somewhat colourless, besides being de- 
void of startling contrasts, conditions that 
make all the more praiseworthy Miss Rus- 
sell's convincing acting. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ISABEL IRVING. 

When Isabel Irving played in London with 
Augustin Daly's company several seasons 
ago, she was dubbed "a dainty rogue in 
porcelain," and one might search for a long 
time, and then not find a phrase that so 
accurately describes the impression made 
upon one by the actress's nai've personality 
and her ingenuous and delicately artificial 
method of dramatic expression. On the 
stage she never suggests any great depth 
or underlying force of character, and she 
could never successfully impersonate a char- 
acter calling for passion or grief. Her dis- 
position is sunshiny and bright ; she is a 

child of joy and innocent pleasure, whose 
98 




ISABELLE IRVING 



Isabel Irving. 99 

nature would instinctively shrink from pain, 
and whom suffering would kill. One sees 
in her face — a face that one instantly calls 
pretty, as distinguished from handsome — 
refinement and youthful interest. 

"It is the spring violet order of beauty, 
frank, delicate, and innocent," declared C. 
M. S. McLellan. " It lacks dramatic lumi- 
nousness, is more suffused with tender sur- 
prise than kindled with fiery emotions. Miss 
Irving looks always as if she had been 
startled, but only by a noise, not by a vul- 
garity. She scarcely suggests art. She 
suggests gleams and visions. Instead of 
sustaining a theatric situation, she sustains 
the purple bloom of youth's delicious 
fancies." 

I can imagine no role more fitted to Miss 
Irving' s peculiar temperament than that of 
Lady Jessica, which she acted last season 
with John Drew's company in Henry Arthur 
Jones's satirical comedy, "The Liars." The 



ioo Famous Actresses of the Day. 

character was that of a butterfly of fashion 
married to a Londoner of somewhat prosaic 
notions. Finding her home life a little dull 
and monotonous, and her husband more 
practical than romantic, Lady Jessica en- 
tangled herself in an audacious flirtation with 
a passionate African explorer, whom nothing 
would satisfy short of an elopement and 
an idyllic existence in some far-away place 
where they two should be the whole world. 
Frightened at his impetuosity and at the 
results of her own naughtiness, the little 
woman wrung her hands helplessly, and 
finally solved the problem by shifting the 
burden of responsibility for her salvation on 
the shoulders of her friends. Freed from 
the idea that she must do something for 
herself, the frivolous wife recovered her 
natural gaiety of manner, while she regarded 
with complacency the efforts of others to 
ward off a public scandal. Occasionally, she 
interested herself enough in the affair to 



Isabel Irving. 1 6 1 

offer advice, which was ridiculously foolish 
and vexatiously inadequate. Miss Irving 
acted the part deliciously, and without appar- 
ent effort made Lady Jessica so delightful 
and fascinating that one could not help 
loving her, even at the moments when he 
most of all wanted to box her ears, and send 
her supperless to bed. 

Miss Irving was born in Bridgeport, 
Conn., and before she went on the stage, 
just after she left school, she had never even 
so much as acted in private theatricals. 
Her first engagement was with Rosina 
Voices, and her d^but was made at the 
Standard Theatre, New York, in February, 
1887, as Ermyntrude Johnson in Pinero's 
farce, " The School Mistress." Later she 
was given the part of Gwendolin Hawkins 
in the same play. During her next season 
with Miss Vokes she acted such roles as 
the maid Perkins in " A Double Lesson," 
Miss Violet in "A Pantomine Rehearsal," 



102 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Rose Dalrymple in " In Honour Bound," and 
Edith Leslie in "The Widow's Device." 
In spite of the fact that Miss Irving was 
absolutely ignorant of stage requirements 
when she became a member of Miss Vokes's 
company, she is said to have played her first 
part at short notice. She undoubtedly owes 
much of her success to Miss Vokes, who 
was not only an admirable stage director, 
but also a woman whose very personality 
inspired confidence and afforded encourage- 
ment. 

In the fall of 1888 Miss Irving joined 
the Daly company, with which she was con- 
nected six years, in that time visiting Eng- 
land three times with the organisation. She 
also accompanied the Daly players to Paris, 
where she acted one week, appearing in Ada 
Rehan's part in "The Lottery of Love," 
at the Vaudeville Theatre, where this play 
was originally produced in French as " Les 
Surprises du Divorce." Some of her best 



Isabel Irving. 103 

known characters while with Mr. Daly were 
Audrey in "As You Like It," Oberon in 
" A Midsummer Night's Dream," Helen in 
"The Hunchback," and the juvenile comedy 
parts in " Nancy & Co.," " Railroad of Love," 
"A Night Off," and " The Orient Express." 
In the middle of the London engagement 
of 1894 Miss Irving resigned her position 
in the Daly company, and that fall she was 
engaged by Daniel Frohman to play Lady 
Noeline in "The Amazons," in one of his 
road companies. Soon after, when Georgia 
Cay van retired from the Lyceum Theatre 
Company, Miss Irving succeeded her as 
leading lady, appearing first as Dorothea 
March in Sardou's play, "A Woman's 
Silence." For the last two seasons she has 
been with John Drew, whose chief support 
she became when Maude Adams left his 
company. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MAXINE ELLIOTT. 

Maxine Elliott began her theatrical 
career as a stage beauty. Unmistakably 
a brunette, with hair and eyes of inky 
blackness, she had none of the warmth 
that is associated with the brunette type. 
She was a New Englander by birth, and a 
New Englander in spirit, and in those early 
days she exhibited in abundance all the cold- 
ness and indifference of an unsympathetic 
temperament so often characteristic of the 
descendants from Puritan ancestry. Stat- 
uesque described her exactly. A face and 
a figure chiselled in marble by a master 
hand could have been no more perfect than 

were hers, nor could they have been more 
104 




MAX1NE ELLIOTT 
As Alice Adams in " Nathan Hale " 



::# 



Maxine Elliott. 105 

expressive of self-centred and self-possessed 
dignity ; neither would the marble image 
have conveyed any more surely the sense 
of inanimateness than did the living woman. 
For, while there was physical perfection in 
the first Maxine Elliott, and classic beauty 
in those features, clear-cut as a cameo, 
nowhere was there aught to indicate human 
sympathy. Her acting, too, was chaste and 
formal, without inspiration, without convic- 
tion, and without colour. Her temperament 
appeared dramatically sterile, and its cold- 
ness and reserve seemed to partake of the 
barrenness and bleakness of her native 
wintry State of Maine. 

The New Englander is naturally not an 
actor, chiefly because of the New England 
conscience, which is a genuine handicap, 
even to those that have wandered far from 
the paths of correct living and truth, as 
marked out by the fathers. The New England 
conscience, as you would know if you had 



106 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

one, is a tragic reality, which, with smirk- 
ing hypocrisy, and under false pretences, 
has for over two centuries been mercilessly 
throttling all the pleasures in life that it 
could get its hands on. It is not a con- 
science like those that the little boys and 
girls have whose lives make such interesting 
and instructive reading for Sunday school 
scholars ; it is not a voice that wakes chil- 
dren, usually between midnight and two 
o'clock in the morning, and tells them what 
is good and what is evil. The New Eng- 
land conscience does not talk much, and its 
instinctive judgments are generally so silly 
that they do very little harm. What it 
does persistently provoke, however, is in- 
voluntary and undesirable self-examination, 
which in turn leads to exasperating self- 
sciousness. Self-consciousness breeds reserve 
and the accompanying suppression of all 
outward expression of the emotions. Here 
you have the explanation of the New Eng- 



Maxine Elliott. 107 

lander's coldness. Moreover, emotion, con- 
stantly suppressed, does not develop. That 
is the reason for the New Englander's lack 
of sympathy. In a person without warmth, 
without sympathy, and without emotional 
activity, one can hardly expect to find the 
dramatic temperament. And Maxine Elliott 
was a typical New Englander when she 
went on the stage. 

Then suddenly and unexpectedly she 
changed in a most astonishing and com- 
plete fashion. The grovelling worm became 
a beautiful butterfly. The emotionally un- 
responsive being somehow or other shook 
off the plethora of the New England con- 
science, and bloomed forth into glorious 
womanhood. She stopped posing, for she 
knew how to act ; she acquired spontaneity, 
passion, and sincerity ; most wonderful of all, 
she developed a touch of humour. Her 
beauty, more fascinating than ever in its 
animated loveliness, lost its statuesque un- 



108 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

reality and immobility, and became human. 
Miss Elliott is not the first actress to be 
developed from apparently unpromising mate- 
rial, and the mystery in her case comes 
from the amazing abruptness of the change. 
Her growth first became overwhelmingly evi- 
dent last season in her impersonation of 
Alice Adams, in " Nathan Hale." This was 
a curious play, embracing farce, tragedy, 
comedy, and melodrama, whose merits were 
absurdly overrated. It was very well acted, 
and its patriotic sentiments made it go with 
its audiences. Miss Elliott's role was quite 
the dominating feature, and she was by far 
the most interesting person on the stage. 
This was due to the fact that she was 
positive in speech and action, while Mr. 
Goodwin's Nathan Hale was largely nega- 
tive, a character that was continually being 
acted upon, and which almost never took the 
initiative. Miss Elliott's love-making and 
coquetry in the early acts of the play were 



Maxine Elliott. 109 

delightful. Her playing of the parting scene 
with Hale, after he had volunteered as a 
spy, was especially strong, and the difference 
between the three varieties of pathos — the 
unsuccessful plea, the resentful pride that 
followed failure, and the despair when she 
was left alone — was finely indicated and 
forcibly presented. The sobbing farewell just 
before Hale's death, in which no word was 
spoken, was a masterly pantomimic triumph. 
Miss Elliott was born in Rockland, Maine, 
and was educated in the Notre Dame Acad- 
emy in Roxbury, Massachusetts. After she 
finished school she went with her father, 
who was a sea-captain, on a voyage to South 
America and Spain. When she returned, 
she started for New York, determined to go 
on the stage. She was then about sixteen 
years old, and apparently stage-struck to the 
very last degree. She wanted a career, she 
said, and she wished to be independent. The 
best she could do at first was to fill a think- 



no Famous Actresses of the Day. 

ing part in A. M. Palmer's company ; to put 
it plainly, she was a "supe." Then her 
beauty got her an engagement with T. 
Henry French to appear as an Oriental houri 
or something like that in " The Voyage de 
Suzette." This spectacle was a dreadful 
failure. 

Her serious dramatic work began when 
she became a member of E. S. Willard's 
company in 1890, during the English actor's 
first tour of this country. Her first role was 
Felica Umfraville in " The Middleman," and 
she also played Virginia Fleetwood in " John 
Needham's Double." The next season she 
remained with Willard, and was advanced a 
peg, being given the part of Beatrice Selwyn 
in "A Fool's Paradise," and later, that of 
Lady Gilding in "The Professor's Love 
Story." In the spring of 1893, she was the 
original Violet Woodman in " The Prodigal 
Daughter," when that play was produced at 
the American Theatre in New York. The 



Maxine Elliott. i t r 

following spring she was the Kate Malcolm 
in " Sister Mary " with Julia Arthur, and 
then she joined Rose Coghlan, appearing as 
Dora in " Diplomacy," Grace Harkaway in 
" London Assurance," Alice Varney in " For- 
get-Me-Not," and Mrs. Allenby in " A Woman 
of No Importance." 

While a member of Augustin Daly's com- 
pany, with which she became connected after 
leaving Miss Coghlan, Miss Elliott improved 
much in finesse and in stage deportment. 
She went with the company to London in 
1895, which was her first appearance in that 
city, and her marvellous beauty attracted any 
amount of attention. Miss Elliott made her 
debut at Daly's in the title role of " A Heart 
of Ruby." She also appeared in "The 
Orient Express," "A Bundle of Lies," and 
" A Tragedy Rehearsal." Her first Shake- 
spearian part was Silvia in " Two Gentlemen 
of Verona," and her other Shakespearian 
roles were Hermia in " A Midsummer Night's 



112 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Dream" and Olivia in "Twelfth Night." 
After closing with Daly, Miss Elliott played 
a summer engagement with the Daniel Fraw- 
ley company in San Francisco. When Nat 
Goodwin, whose wife she now is, returned 
from Australia in 1896, she joined his com- 
pany and since that time she has continued 
to be Mr. Goodwin's leading lady. At the 
end of last season she went with him to 
London, appearing in " The Cowboy and the 
Lady" and " An American Citizen." 




Copyright, 189r, by Aime'Dupont, N. Y. 

ADA REHAN 
As Beatrice in " Much Ado About Nothing " 



CHAPTER X. 

ADA REHAN. 

After a quarter-century on the stage, 
during which time she has played over 150 
parts, Ada Rehan is to-day, as, in fact, she 
has been for the past ten years, America's 
representative actress. Not only have her 
exceptional and versatile talents afforded 
pleasure to thousands of theatre-goers on 
this side of the Atlantic, but she is equally 
well known abroad, where her fine art and 
graceful personality are held in the highest 
esteem. Beginning at the bottom of the 
histrionic ladder and climbing upward by 
means of faithful endeavour and increasing 
artistic worth, she reached, as leading lady 
of Augustin Daly's company, and later as 
"3 



H4 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

star, a foremost position in the dramatic 
world, a position which she has retained 
through an ability not far from genius. 

Ada Rehan was born in Limerick, Ireland, 
April 22, i860. Her family name is Crehan, 
and the interesting anecdote is told that 
when she made her debut on the stage some 
blundering printer gave her the name on the 
playbill of Ada C. Rehan. She liked the 
change, and adopted " Rehan " permanently. 
The story seems likely enough, but it is 
probably not true. Certain it is that she 
made her first theatrical ventures as a Crehan, 
as is shown by an old playbill of the Arch 
Street Theatre, Philadelphia, under date of 
1874, which plainly announces her as Ada 
Crehan. Miss Rehan was brought to this 
country when she was five years old, and 
her childhood was passed in Brooklyn, New 
York. Her two older sisters, one Mrs. 
Oliver Doud Byron and the other Mrs. R. 
Fulton Russell, known to the playgoing pub. 



Ada Rehan. 115 

lie as Miss Hattie Russell, both adopted the 
dramatic profession, and it was undoubtedly 
this fact that turned the youngest sister's 
steps toward the theatre. She was thirteen 
years old when she made her first appear- 
ance, at Newark, New Jersey, in Oliver 
Doud Byron's play, "Across the Continent," 
in which she acted Clara for one night only 
to fill a vacancy caused by a performer's ill- 
ness. Her first appearance on the New York 
stage was during the same season at Wood's 
Museum, where she played with Mr. Byron's 
company a small part in " Thoroughbred." 

Her first regular professional engagement 
was at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, 
then under the management of Mrs. John 
Drew. Miss Rehan became a member of 
this company in 1873 and remained with it 
for three seasons. It is a curious fact that 
in the company at the time, and also as a 
beginner, was John Drew, who for so many 
years played opposite parts to Miss Rehan 



1 1 6 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

in Daly's Theatre. Leaving Philadelphia, 
she acted for a season in Macauley's Theatre, 
Louisville, and she was a member of the 
company when, in November, 1875, Mary 
Anderson made her first appearance on any 
stage. Miss Rehan was then for two years 
with John W. Albaugh's company, acting 
sometimes in Albany, New York, and some- 
times in Baltimore. During this engage- 
ment she was associated with such stars as 
Edwin Booth, Adelaide Neilson, and John 
McCullough, playing, among other characters, 
Ophelia to Booth's Hamlet and Queen Anne 
and Virginia to McCullough's Richard III. 
and Virginius. A few of the many parts 
that Miss Rehan played in these early times 
were : Anne Leigh, " Enoch Arden ; " Bar- 
bara Hare, " East Lynne ; " Bianca, " Tam- 
ing of the Shrew ; " Celia, " As You Like 
It ; " Cordelia, " King Lear ; " Desdemona, 
" Othello ; " Esther Eccles, " Caste ; " Grace 
Harkaway, " London Assurance ; " Lady 



, 



Ada Rehan. 117 

Florence, " Rosedale ; " Little Em'ly, " David 
Copperfield ; " Olivia, "Twelfth Night;" 
Pauline, " Lady of Lyons ; " Queen Eliza- 
beth, "Mary Stuart;" Ursula, "Much 
Ado ; " Winnifred Wood, " Jack Sheppard." 

It was during the season of 1878, Miss 
Rehan' s last with the Albaugh company, 
that Augustin Daly first saw her. His 
attention was again called to her in April, 
1879, while she was playing Mary Standish 
in "Pique" with Fanny Davenport at the 
Grand Opera House, New York. She was 
engaged by Mr. Daly and first appeared under 
his management at the Olympic Theatre, New 
York, as Big Clemence in Daly's version of 
" L'Assommoir." The story, which may or 
may not be true, so uncertain are theatrical 
anecdotes, connected with this engagement 
is as follows : Maude Granger and Emily 
Rigl played two leading parts in " L'Assom- 
moir." There was a scene in the play where 
they threw pails of water at each other. 



1 1 8 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

The two actresses were great rivals theatri- 
cally, and it is said that they spitefully threw 
the water in each other's faces instead of on 
their skirts, underneath which were worn 
rubber petticoats. Of course both denied it, 
yet the circumstance was used to work up 
some advertising, and the young men about 
town would take in that one scene every 
evening to see the " fight " between the 
pretty washerwomen of " L'Assommoir." 
Finally Miss Rigl suddenly withdrew from 
the company. It was during hot summer 
weather, and Mr. Daly, not caring to 
increase his expenses, looked through the 
company to take out one of the female super- 
numeraries to fill Miss Rigl's place for the 
short time the piece was to run. The part 
was called Big Clemence. Now it so hap- 
pened that Ada Rehan was playing a part of 
a few lines. She was tall and would look 
the part of Big Clemence ; so she had it 
given over to her keeping. 






Ada Rehan. 1 19 

On September 17, 1879, Augustin Daly 
opened his theatre on the present site, for- 
merly Wood's Museum, and Miss Rehan 
became the leading woman, appearing for 
the first time as Nellie Beers in " Love's 
Young Dream," which was played with Olive 
Logan's play, " Newport," as an opening bill. 
Two weeks later " Divorce " was revived, and 
Miss Rehan appeared in the role created by 
Fanny Davenport six years before, Lu Ten 
Eyck. 

It is only necessary to glance at the parts 
that Miss Rehan acted during her years as 
the foremost member of Mr. Daly's famous 
company to understand what is meant by a 
thorough artistic training and to realise that 
the actress's unique versatility has been 
honestly acquired. Among her impersona- 
tions have been Valentine Osprey in "The 
Railroad of Love," Jo in "The Lottery of 
Love," Xantippe in "The Wife of Soc- 
rates," Tilburnia in " Rehearsing a Tragedy," 



1 20 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Phronie in " Dollars and Sense," Oriana in 
"The Inconstant," Kate Verity in "The 
Squire," Doris in " An International Match," 
Katharine in "The Taming of the Shrew," 
Audrey Ollyphant in " Samson and Delilah," 
Niobe in "A Night Off," Flos in "7-20-8," 
Tryphena Magillicuddy in " The Golden 
Widow," Etna in "The Great Unknown," 
Rosalind in "As You Like It," Donna 
Hypolita in " She Would and She Wouldn't," 
Peggy in "The Country Girl," Dina Fau 
delle in "A Priceless Paragon," Mile. Ros 
in "The Prayer," Helena in "A Midsummer 
Night's Dream," Miss Hoyden in "Miss 
Hoyden's Husband," Nancy Brasher in 
"Nancy & Co.," Elvira Honiton in "New 
Lamps for Old," Baroness Vera von Boura- 
neff in "The Last Word," Lady Teazle in 
"The School for Scandal," Pierrot in "The 
Prodigal Son," the Princess of France in 
" Love's Labour Lost," Aprilla Dymond in 
"Love in Tandem," Maid Marian in "The 



J 7 

■ 



Ada Rehan. 121 

Foresters," Rena Primrose in " Little Miss 
Million," Juno Jessamine in " A Test Case," 
Julia in " The Hunchback," Mockwood in 
" The Knave," Letitia Hardy in " The 
Belle's Stratagem," Viola in « Twelfth Night," 
and last season Roxane in Daly's adaptation 
of Rostand's " Cyrano de Bergerac " and the 
London jeweller's wife in the English melo- 
drama, "The Great Ruby." 

Miss Rehan first played in London in 
1884, opening at Toole's Theatre on July 
19th, in "7-20-8, or The Casting of the 
Boomerang," the production of which was 
received with much adverse comment. Since 
that time her visits abroad have been many, 
and the Daly company may be said to have 
been almost as much at home in England as 
here. The second London engagement in 
1886 of nine weeks at the Strand Theatre 
was much more successful than the first, 
Miss Rehan attracting considerable attention 
by her work in a small part in " A Night 



122 Famous Actresses of the Day, 

Off," and afterward by her acting in " Nancy 
& Co." After playing in London, the com- 
pany toured the English provinces and then 
played in Germany and in Paris, which re- 
ceived the American actors with great cool- 
ness, due as much as anything to the fact 
that the Frenchmen could not, and, indeed, 
did not care, to understand the foreign 
players. 

In 1888, at the Gaiety Theatre, Miss 
Rehan first showed the Londoners her most 
brilliant Shakespearian character, Katharine 
in "The Taming of the Shrew," and forth- 
with the London theatre-goers accorded her 
the fullest recognition and the heartiest sup- 
port. This splendid impression was height- 
ened when she occupied Henry Irving's 
Lyceum Theatre during the summer of 
1890, presenting "The Daughter of Com- 
edy " and her delightful impersonation of 
Rosalind in "As You Like It." The Lon- 
don critics, one and all, enthusiastically 



Ada Rehan. 123 

praised this beautiful performance. In Sep- 
tember, 1 89 1, Miss Rehan was again in 
London, and two years later Mr. Daly real- 
ised his ambition to become a London 
manager. Daly's Theatre was opened June 
2 7> J 893, with Miss Rehan as Katharine. 
During her tours of England Miss Rehan 
has played in Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, 
and in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre 
at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1894 she became 
a star, supported by Mr. Daly's company, 
although the change was merely a formal 
announcement of a fact that had long been 
accepted by the public. 

Ada Rehan is a superb comedy actress, 
equally at home as the hoydenish, mutinous, 
and mischievous Peggy Thrift in "The 
Country Girl," as the delicately humorous 
and quietly pathetic Viola in "Twelfth 
Night," as the vivacious and womanly Lady 
Teazle in " The School for Scandal," and in 
the many light comedy roles in the adapta- 



124 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

tions from the German that were such promi- 
nent features of the Daly repertory in the 
eighties. Gifted with a voice of rare musical 
charm, a stage presence that is both gracious 
and dignified, a radiant individuality, and a 
fine sense of humour, she is especially suc- 
cessful in characters that mingle fun with 
sentiment and require buoyancy of spirits 
without coarseness. She has uncommon 
eloquence in the expression of woe, and 
she often deeply moves her audiences with 
the wealth of her emotion. Her pathos 
is simple and true and is conveyed with 
artistic subtilty. Her tragic powers have 
not been tested of late years, though it is 
by no means certain that tragedy is beyond 
her range. 



" 




VIRGINIA HARNED 
As Julie in " An Enemy to the King 



CHAPTER XL 

VIRGINIA HARNED. 

Virginia Harned was the creator in this 
country of the character of Drusilla Ives in 
Henry Arthur Jones's sensational comedy, 
" The Dancing Girl ; " she was also the 
original Trilby in Paul Potter's dramatisa- 
tion of George Du Maurier's novel, which 
was produced in Boston in 1895 ; and she 
created the role of Lady Ursula in Anthony 
Hope's romantic comedy, "The Adventure 
of Lady Ursula," when that drama was 
originally acted at the Broad Street The- 
atre, Philadelphia, on December 6, 1897. 
These are her three best parts, and their 
wide variance shows conclusively her ver- 
satility as a comedy actress. Physically, 



126 Famous Actresses of the Day, 

Miss Harned, who, as is well known, is 
not Miss Harned at all, but Mrs. E. H. 
Sothern, the wife of the popular star, is a 
buxom young woman, whose bracing and 
frank personality carries with it exuber- 
ance of spirits, life, freedom, and happiness. 
Her dramatic temperament is sumptuous, 
warm, and full of colour, suggesting volup- 
tuous ease, love of pleasure, and a fondness 
for luxurious refinement. There is nothing 
spirituelle about her ; her stage presence is 
distinctly material and very much of the 
world ; she seems a woman with a streak of 
Bohemia in her make-up, whose heart is as 
true as steel and whose sympathy is easily 
aroused and bountifully expended. 

Such a personality and temperament fitted 
admirably the personality and temperament 
of Drusilla Ives, the wilful daughter of 
Quaker parents, whose craving for gaiety 
and for the bustle of worldliness drew her 
from the safe confines of her quiet home 






Virginia Harned. 127 

into an environment of sin and wickedness. 
Her whirlwind of pleasure soon brought 
sorrow, shame, and despair. It was a com- 
mon enough story, of course. But it is 
the common enough stories that keep a 
permanent hold on human interest. Dru- 
silla Ives was practically the star part of 
the play, through which Miss Harned moved 
with sensuous charm, an insinuating smile, 
an enticing voice, and a fascinating grace, 
thoroughly characteristic ; for Drusilla was 
sensuous in look and act ; she had all the 
fascinations of a beautiful woman who was 
purposely a temptress and who delighted in 
being a temptress. Some one called Drusilla 
brazen. If he meant that she was brazen as 
Miss Harned portrayed her, I cannot agree 
with him. There was an undercurrent 
of sorrow in the impersonation, a touch of 
regret and of conscience-stricken remorse, 
sentiments unconsciously conveyed by the 
actress, perhaps, that always strongly im- 



128 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

pressed upon me the pathos of Drusilla 
Ives's experience. Miss Harned's concep- 
tion did not suggest to me a woman totally 
depraved. The actress constantly reminded 
one that Drusilla was, after all, only a girl, 
country-bred and ignorant or unappreciative 
of the consequences of evil, whose reckless- 
ness was at first but another name for the 
unenlightened innocence of a person naturally 
pleasure-loving and impatient of restraint. 

Miss Harned's Trilby was probably a more 
artistic performance than her Drusilla Ives ; 
it was more of an impersonation, for, if we 
except the Bohemian quirk in her tempera- 
ment, Miss Harned did not in the least sug- 
gest the statuesque Trilby. Du Maurier 
described his heroine with the greatest care. 
" She was one of the tallest of her sex," he 
wrote, and again, " Not a giantess by any 
means. She was as tall as Miss Ellen Terry, 
and that is a charming height, I think." Now, 
Miss Harned could not reach that height by 



Virginia Harned. 129 

several inches, but she had the advantage of 
suggesting physical perfection, which from 
the viewpoint of the stage, where a few 
inches more or less do not count for much, 
was of greater importance. However, it 
was a sympathetic spirit with which she 
regarded Trilby, and the fine art by means 
of which she gave life to her conception, that 
won for her a great success and fixed the 
pattern that the many later Trilby s were 
compelled to follow. 

" I do not think Trilby was a bad girl," 
Miss Harned answered, when asked her 
opinion of the character. " How can a 
woman who has never associated with pure 
women know that she is not good ? I am 
not upholding the sort of life that Trilby 
led before she made friends with the trio, 
only saying that she really had not stopped 
to think ; no one had made her, so why 
should she be blamed ? It was all so differ- 
ent to her afterward. Surely, one must be 



130 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

very narrow-minded to think that Trilby was 
a bad girl." 

Lady Ursula was a r61e entirely different 
from either Drusilla Ives or Trilby. It was 
a fanciful character, full of obstinate feminin- 
ity and replete with the charm of fun-loving 
girlhood. There was later a delicious touch 
of sentiment, when the woman, proud and 
independent, surrendered herself to the man 
she loved. Miss Harned's acting was dainty 
and full of spirit. The comedy in the duel 
scene was well conveyed, though here and 
there one became conscious of a touch of 
artificiality that somewhat marred the pic- 
ture. This fault was hardly prominent 
enough, however, seriously to affect the 
general excellence of the personation. 

Virginia Harned first saw the light of day 
in Boston, but her parents left that city when 
she was a baby, and she does not know even 
the name of the street on which she was 
born. Previous to going on the stage she 



Virginia Harned. 131 

lived abroad for many years, in England and 
on the Continent. Her early theatrical ex- 
periences were with road companies, her 
first engagement having been with a com- 
pany playing Robson and Crane's old suc- 
cess, " Our Boarding House." In the 
spring of 1887 she was the leading lady 
with George Clarke of the Daly Company, 
when he toured New England for a few 
weeks in " The Corsican Brothers " and 
" False Shame." The experiment ended in 
financial disaster. For two years she acted, 
throughout the South and West, Liobe in 
"A Night Off," the part that Ada Rehan 
made famous. Then she started out with 
Harry Lacy in "The Still Alarm," but be- 
came involved in a legal controversy with the 
management before the season was ended. 
Her first New York engagement followed in 
Sedley Brown's " A Long Lane," at the 
Fourteenth Street Theatre, after which she 
joined Louis Aldrich's company, playing the 



132 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

comedy part of Florence Fetherley in " The 
Editor." While she was with Mr. Aldrich 
Daniel Frohman saw her act and engaged 
her as E. H. Sothern's leading lady. Her 
first character with Mr. Sothern was Clara 
Dexter in "The Maister of Woodbarrow." 

"You have no idea," said Miss Harned, 
recalling that time, " what a slip of a girl I 
was then, and so thin and unimportant look- 
ing. I had broad enough shoulders and a 
full neck and chest, but otherwise my dresses 
were full of pads to give my figure some sort 
of maturity and weight. I came across one 
of the dresses I wore that season, when look- 
ing over a trunk the other day, and I was 
amazed at it. Why, even when I first played 
with Mr. Sothern in ' The Maister of Wood- 
barrow ' my gowns were all padded." 

During her first connection with Mr. 
Sothern Miss Harned appeared in "Lord 
Chumley," "The Dancing Girl," and as 
Fanny in "Captain Lettarblair." Leaving 



Virginia Harned. 133 

Daniel Frohman's management, she joined 
A. M. Palmer's stock company, scoring her 
first success as Mrs. Erlynne in " Lady Win- 
dermere's Fan," and afterward acting such 
rdles as Letty Fletcher in " Saints and Sin- 
ners," and Mrs. Sylvester in "The New 
Woman."* Her creation of Trilby followed, 
after which she rejoined Mr. Sothern, with 
whom she has acted off and on ever since, 
appearing in " Lady Ursula," " The Lady of 
Lyons," and " A Colonial Girl," when that 
play was produced in Philadelphia in August, 
1898, under the name of "A Shilling's 
Worth." 



CHAPTER XIL 

VIOLA ALLEN. 

Viola Allen has been a star just one 
season, and she is accounted one of the most 
fortunate actresses before the public. The 
play in which she appeared last season, — 
Hall Caine's dramatisation of his own novel 
"The Christian," — while far from being 
high art, strongly appealed to the popular 
fancy, and the result was big houses and 
great financial prosperity. The best sum- 
ming up of " The Christian " that I ever 
heard was made by Henry Jewett, who 
played John Storm during the run of the 
drama in Boston. "There's lots of bun- 
combe in it," he said, "lots of buncombe." 
134 




VIOLA ALLEN 



Viola Allen. 135 

" The Christian " was produced in Albany, 
N. Y., August 23, 1898, and after a pre- 
liminary tour it opened in New York on 
October 10th, remaining there until March 
5th, when it was taken to Boston, where it 
ran out the season. It is a strictly theatrical 
play, and its characters are largely of machine 
make. It chiefly appeals to persons on 
whom the theatre-going habit is not per- 
manently fixed, and who, therefore, are not 
analysers, consciously or unconsciously, of 
dramatic effects. The sentiments in the 
speeches of John Storm, speeches that are 
uttered by the actor with all the solemnity 
of complete conviction, strike the unsophis- 
ticated with peculiar force, and these hifalutin 
words and preachy conventionalities, together 
with a certain dramatic power that is the 
only reason for the existence of the mechan- 
ical drama, account easily enough for the 
popular success of the play. If one tears 
away this cant and insincerity, he finds that 



136 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

the core of the play is the love of John 
Storm for Glory Quayle, the one a visionary 
ascetic, almost a fanatic, with a great desire 
to help the poor and downtrodden, and with 
a greater desire to wed the beautiful Manx 
girl, lovely in character, pure-minded, tal- 
ented, ambitious, but absolutely without the 
martyr spirit that is so essential a part of 
Storm's self-centred nature. Storm, in- 
tensely earnest, immensely sympathetic with 
the mob, is still curiously selfish, besides 
being absolutely wanting in power of self- 
analysis. Without knowing it, he is a 
thorough pessimist. The author's problem 
is to unite Glory, the actress, the light- 
hearted, fun-loving girl, and the honest, 
true-hearted woman, and Storm, the uncom- 
promising, to make one the optimist and the 
pessimist, a problem that apparently has no 
logical solution, — at least, none so far as 
Mr. Caine is concerned. His way of doing 
it is to wrench Glory from her world, and 



Viola Allen. 137 

throw her into Storm's arms, and this is 
what they call a happy ending. 

Miss Allen's acting was far better than 
the play. She is personally a woman of 
much charm, and professionally an actress 
of well-rounded art. While she has no great 
spontaneity of method, nor a temperament 
whose dramatic qualities especially impress 
one, she has fine tact, much intelligence, and 
emotional gifts of no mean order. Her ver- 
satility is adequate, though by no means ex- 
traordinary, and her comedy — especially 
in situations that call for vivacity and girlish 
gaiety — is less apt to ring true than her 
acting in moments that require the por- 
trayal of quiet and deep emotion. This, 
of course, is but another way of saying 
that she does not laugh well, for the secret 
of success in girlish characters of the light 
comedy order is a joyous laugh that sounds 
perfectly natural. 

Viola Allen comes of a theatrical family. 



138 Famous Actresses of the Day, 

Her father is C. Leslie Allen, an accom- 
plished character actor, who first appeared 
on the stage in 1852 in the Howard 
Athenaeum in Boston, and a short time after 
in the old Boston Theatre on Federal Street. 
He spoke the last words uttered to an 
audience in the latter house before it was 
burned. Mr. Allen acted in many of the 
old-time stock companies, playing especially 
well such parts as Uriah Heep in " David 
Copperfield," Malvolio in "Twelfth Night," 
Saunders in " The Man o' Airlie," Bardolph 
in " The Merry Wives of Windsor," in which 
he supported James H. Hackett, the famous 
Falstaff ; Moneypenny in "The Long Strike," 
and Old Rodgers in " Esmeralda." Miss 
Allen's mother was also on the stage. She 
was born in England and came to this country 
at an early age. The first character that 
she ever acted was the Player Queen in 
" Hamlet." She was married to Mr. Allen 
in 1862, and for many years they were 



i 



Viola Allen. 139 

together in the same companies. Mrs. 
Allen's speciality was " old woman " parts. 

Miss Allen was born in the late sixties 
in Alabama, where her parents were play- 
ing, but she spent nearly all her childhood 
in Boston, where she attended school, and, 
indeed, lived and grew up in much the 
same way as does the average girl, for her 
father and mother, who were connected 
with the Boston Theatre company during 
that time, were able to maintain a home, 
that rarest of an actor's blessings. When 
she was thirteen or fourteen years old, her 
parents obtained engagements in New York, 
and the family moved to that city, where 
Miss Allen continued in school. Her debut 
on the stage came about unexpectedly when 
she was about fifteen years old. Her father 
was playing in the Madison Square Theatre 
Company in support of Annie Russell, who 
was making a great success in New York 
in " Esmeralda," Miss Russell retired from 



140 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

the cast, and the question came, who should 
take her place. Miss Allen had never even 
seen a dozen plays in her life, much less 
acted in any ; but she had the instinct, and 
when the chance was given her to succeed 
Miss Russell, she jumped at the opportunity. 
As is often the case, in spite of her igno- 
rance of the stage and lack of time in whicl 
to study the character, she made a success. 

" Where did you get your dramatic train- 
ing ?" Miss Allen was once asked. 

" I can't tell you," she replied. " I have 
naturally enough been interested in dramatic 
matters ever since I can remember, and I 
have read and studied Shakespeare since 
I could read at all, always, of course, under 
the guidance of my father. But all the 
training of practical value that I have had I 
got upon the stage." 

After a season on the road with " Esme- 
ralda," Miss Allen became leading lady for 
John McCullough for the season that proved 



Viola Allen. 141 

to be the actor's last. With him she acted 
Virginia, in which she has been described as 
" the sweetest, almost, that ever was seen — 
so winning, so young, so fragile-looking ; " 
Desdemona, an impersonation that has clung 
to the memories of those that saw it ; Parthe- 
nia ; and Julia in " The Gladiator," Doctor 
Bird's version, a totally different play from the 
one of the same name presented by Salvini. 
In those days a writer characterised Miss 
Allen thus : " As dainty as she is young and 
as promising as she is natural." . After her 
engagement with McCullough she joined 
Lawrence Barrett for the production of 
Browning's " Blot on the 'Scutcheon," and 
the next season she supported the elder 
Salvini, with whom she assumed such roles as 
Cordelia in "King Lear," Desdemona in 
" Othello," Neodamia in the Salvini version of 
"The Gladiator," and the wife's part in "Le 
Mort Civile." On the off nights, when Alex- 
ander Salvini played, she was Juliet to his 



142 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Romeo. Miss Allen was asked if she found 
it difficult to follow Salvini in English while 
he spoke in Italian. " Oh, not at all," she 
replied. " He was so wonderfully eloquent of 
face and gesture, I could always tell the mean- 
ing of what he was saying even though I 
could not understand a word." 

Miss Allen's death scenes were much 
admired, and regarding them she once ex- 
pressed herself as follows : 

" I have endured many deaths. One of them 
was in 'Virginius,' when I was stabbed and 
fell backward to the ground. When I played 
in ' Othello ' with Salvini, I was always 
nervous during the smothering scene, because 
he used to get so excited. I turned my face 
sideways and held a small place open under 
the further side of the pillow, so that I could 
breathe, but even that breathing hole would 
frequently get closed up under the forceful 
energy of Salvini. Then, when he finds that 
he has killed Desdemona without cause, in 



Viola Allen. 1 43 

his remorse he throws himself heavily on the 
body. I used to wait for this piece of busi- 
ness with fear and trembling. Salvini's fall 
was awfully realistic. As Juliet I have died 
many times. You know Romeo drinks the 
poison and subsequently throws the vial 
away as I approach him. (This is in the 
Garrick version.) Then, seeing him die, I 
stab myself and fall over him. One night 
some practical joker thought it would be 
funny to fill the vial with ink, and as Romeo 
merely made a slight motion of drinking he 
did not notice the fluid, but when he threw 
the bottle from him it struck somewhere 
near me, and the ink flew all over my face 
and lovely white dress. On that occasion 
you may be sure that I ended my life with 
the least possible delay. In * La Charbon- 
niere ' I died a slow death by poison, and I 
took special care to find out the right poison 
that should be mentioned in the piece as the 
one which would cause a slow numbing of 



144 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

the senses. As Jess in ' Hoodman Blind ' 
I died of starvation, and lay on my side well 
down the stage. This was often an awkward 
situation on account of the different curtains 
at the various theatres. Sometimes, to avoid 
my being struck by the curtain, the hero 
would be obliged to drag my body back, and 
once, though a man put out his hand to keep 
the roller away from me, the heavy mass 
actually grazed my nose." 

After leaving Salvini, Miss Allen was asso- 
ciated with a number of travelling companies, 
and she also starred for a brief and unsuc- 
cessful season. Then she joined Frederic de 
Belleville, and both were featured in melo- 
drama, after which, in 1888, she was engaged 
as leading lady of the Boston Museum stock 
company. While with the Museum com- 
pany she played Evelyn Brookfield in the 
English melodrama, "The Bells of Hasle- 
mere," which had a long run in Boston, 
and she created in America the part of 






Viola Allen. 145 

Mrs. Errol in " Little Lord Fauntleroy," in 
which Elsie Leslie was the Fauntleroy. This 
was, perhaps, the greatest success the Mu- 
seum ever had. She also created the leading 
feminine role in Bronson Howard's " Shenan- 
doah," when that drama was produced at 
the Museum, and she was the first Fanny 
on this side of the water in Robert 
Buchanan's "Joseph's Sweetheart." She 
appeared as Minnie in Pinero's " Sweet 
Lavender," in " Hazel Kirke " at her own 
benefit, and acted Violet Melrose and Clara 
Douglass in the old comedies, " Our Boys " 
and " Money." Miss Allen made a fine 
impression at the Boston Museum, although 
the engagement by no means showed her 
at her best, for it did not present her in 
parts that were especially suited to her, 
or that made any great demands on her 
abilities. 

In the fall of 1 889 she became a member 
of the Joseph Jefferson-William Florence 



146 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Company, playing Lydia Languish to Jef- 
ferson's Bob Acres and Florence's Sir Lucius 
O'Trigger in "The Rivals," and Cicely Home- 
spun to Jefferson's Doctor Pangloss and 
Florence's Zeke Homespun in "The Heir- 
at-Law." In 1893 she joined the Empire 
Theatre Company of New York as leading 
lady, which position she left to star in " The 
Christian." Her first appearance with the 
Empire Company was in Bronson Howard's 
unfortunate "Aristocracy," and she was later 
identified with such successes as " Liberty 
Hall," "The Masqueraders," and "Sowing 
the Wind." Her last appearance with this 
company was as Yvonne in " The Con- 
querors." 







CORONA RICCARDO 
As Berenice in " The Sign of the Cross " 






CHAPTER XIII. 

CORONA RICCARDO. 

In November, 1898, Robert Mantell came 
to Boston for his annual engagement. Mr. 
Mantell had been coming to Boston in simi- 
lar fashion for years ; for years, also, as the 
dramatic editor viewed the case, he had 
opened his week's stay with the grotesquely 
old-fashioned play, " Monbars." Surely noth- 
ing new could come from " Monbars," and 
so the office boy got the Mantell tickets. 
Now, the office boy was not a great dra- 
matic critic, but he did know a good thing 
when he saw it. Consequently, the follow- 
ing morning there were loud proclamations 
around the newspaper office to the effect 
that Mantell had a young woman in his 
147 



148 Famous Actresses of the Day. 






company, who, as the office boy expressed 
it, was " great.' ' The dramatic editor, at 
that time, did not appreciate the value of 
the office boy's notions of acting. But the 
constant dropping of water will wear away 
a stone, and similarly the office boy's con- 
stantly reiterated praise made its impression 
on the dramatic editor. So when " Romeo 
and Juliet " was played at the Wednesday 
matinee, he sent his faithful and long-suffer- 
ing assistant to see if this girl, who had so 
captivated the office boy, was really good 
for anything. 

The faithful and long-suffering assistant 
received the commission with misgiving, and 
fulfilled it with reluctance. Before the first 
act of Shakespeare's tragedy had ended, how- 
ever, he, like the office boy, was brought to 
a state of unabashed adoration. He returned 
to the office, primed to write a column, but 
the dramatic editor said " Bosh ! " and then 
secretly resolved to see this marvel for him- 



Corona Riccardo. 149 

self. That is how he became acquainted 
with Corona Riccardo's Desdemona. The 
experience was a surprising one. He ex- 
pected to be bored ; he did not intend to 
stay through more than two acts under any 
circumstances. What a fall was there ! He 
found himself intensely interested in a Des- 
demona whose youth, beauty, and exquisite 
feminine charm stirred his very soul, the 
music of whose voice was like a soft, sooth- 
ing melody in his ears, and whose gentle 
pathos and pitiful suffering greatly aroused 
his sympathy, and moved him to a degree 
almost embarrassing. 

At present but twenty years old, the 
daughter of Roman parents, though born 
in Naples, Corona Riccardo possesses to the 
highest degree the colourful dramatic tem- 
perament that is the Italian's birthright. She 
realises with a wealth of physical perfection 
the ideal type of Southern womanly beauty. 
Her hair is black as the raven's wing, fram- 



1 50 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

ing a face of wonderful plasticity, a mirror 
of the emotions, from which shine eyes 
whose midnight depths at one moment 
seem fathomless wells of melting tender- 
ness, and at another unquenchable volcanoes 
of blazing wrath, eyes that the love-light 
makes surpassingly feminine, which anger 
and rage make terrible. In figure she is 
tall and stately, and she moves with a glid- 
ing grace that is natural and unstudied. 
Her voice is a choice instrument, rich, 
deep, and full, and her speech betrays the 
faintest hint of a foreign accent, which, with- 
out in the least marring her pronunciation 
of English words, gives an added charm of 
liquid softness to her enunciation. 

Miss Riccardo is, I believe, the most 
promising actress on the American stage. 
Even now, with a stage experience of less 
than five years, her exceptional physical en- 
dowment, her splendid intelligence, and her 
fine art, even in its present incompletely 



Corona Riccardo. 151 

developed state, give her rank with the best. 
And she has her whole life before her ! 

Corona Riccardo lost her parents when 
she was very young, and her entire girl- 
hood was spent in convents in southern 
France and in this country. Her earliest 
ambition was to sing, and for a time she 
studied for grand opera. But she grew rest- 
ive under this drudgery, and turned her 
attention to the stage. Her first appearance 
was in New York, in the fall of 1894, at 
a matinee performance in the Empire Theatre 
by Nelson Wheatcroft's pupils. Miss Ric- 
cardo took the part of a Mexican girl and 
acted it so capably that the New York 
critics, who watch these show performances 
rather closely, gave her a very complimen- 
tary send-off. Shortly after this she was 
engaged by Wilson Barrett, who was at 
that time touring the United States, and 
she made her professional debut as Ancaria 
in "The Sign of the Cross." Later she was 



152 Famous Actresses of the Day. 



promoted to the role of the patrician, Bere- 
nice, which she played with Mr. Barrett, in 
London. Regarding her performance of this 
character, Clement Scott wrote : 

" Miss Corona Riccardo appears as Bere- 
nice, the seductive Roman girl. This young 
actress has, if I am not mistaken, a future. 
She is strikingly handsome, and so looks the 
part to perfection. But she does more, she 
plays it with a passionate energy and volup- 
tuous grace that stamp her as being possessed 
of great talent. At present, hers is untrained 
power, but for all that it is very fascinating 
and exceptionally good. Italian by birth, 
Miss Riccardo only gives evidence of her 
nationality — as far as voice is concerned — 
in the passionate outburst of jealousy to 
which Berenice gives vent." 

After closing with Mr. Barrett, Miss Ric- 
cardo was obliged to retire from active work 
for a year, on account of ill health. She 
became Mr. Mantell's chief support in the 



. 



Corona Riccardo. 153 

fall of 1898, and with him she acted six 
characters, Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet," 
Desdemona in " Othello," Ophelia in " Ham- 
let," Diane in "Monbars," Lucille in "A 
Face in the Moonlight," and Marguerite in 
" A Secret Warrant." Just before Augustin 
Daly left for Europe — only a few weeks 
previous to his death in Paris — Miss Ric- 
cardo was engaged for his company, and the 
day that the ship sailed she appeared for the 
first time as the Countess Mirtza in "The 
Great Ruby," which character she played 
until the theatre was closed after Mr. Daly's 
death. It was considered by members of 
the company a noteworthy incident that Mr. 
Daly, after a single rehearsal, should be so 
satisfied with Miss Riccardo as to leave for 
Europe without waiting for her public per- 
formance. The Dramatic Mirror said that 
she impersonated the Countess with more 
skill and more power than her predecessors, 
and added : " Her accession to Mr. Daly's 



154 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

company unquestionably enhances that 
organisation. If her present strong and 
picturesque performance can be taken as an 
indication of her dramatic resources, she 
seems destined to reach an enviable rank on 
the metropolitan stage." 

It is not unlikely that Miss Riccardo will 
soon be seen at the head of her own company. 
In fact, she has already had several offers 
from persons anxious to secure her as a star. 
"But what in my poor judgment seems just 
the right one, has not come yet," she told 
me. She owns two plays, one dramatised 
especially for her from one of Tolstoi's 
recent novels, and the other by Dumas, a 
drama that has met with great success 
abroad, but which has never been presented 
in this country. A London dramatist is also 
at work on a third drama, the plot of which 
she herself suggested. "The chief role," 
Miss Riccardo explained, " will demand some- 
thing the same range and power as Juliet, 






Corona Riccardo. 155 

though the play will, of course, be the work 
of a modern author, and will not be written 
in blank verse." 

" My only wish and desire/' she continued, 
" is to play the parts I love best, and play 
them before I am old, while I can yet look 
and understand and feel them without having 
to think backward, and remember how I did 
act and feel when I was the age of the char- 
acter I would portray. I do not want to 
wait till I am old." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MARY MANNERING. 

Mary Mannering is an English girl, who 

came to this country a little over two years 

ago, to play leading parts in Daniel Frohman's 

Lyceum Theatre Company. No sooner did 

she get here than she fell in love with an 

American actor, James K. Hackett, who was 

then leading man of the Lyceum Company. 

In May, 1 897, the two were secretly married, 

and so closely was this interesting fact 

guarded that the public never learned of 

it until the couple themselves announced it 

the following January, after Mr. Hackett had 

recovered from a serious attack of typhoid 

fever, through which he was nursed by the 

winsome actress. Miss Mannering, who is 
156 




MARY MANNERING 
As Rose in " Trelawney of the Wells 



Mary Mannering. 157 

not yet twenty-five years old, had been acting, 
principally in the English provinces, about 
seven years, when Mr. Frohman discovered 
her. He journeyed from London to see a 
play called " The Late Mr. Costello," which 
he thought he might want for his New York 
theatre. He bought the play, which, later, 
proved a failure, and he also engaged Miss 
Mannering, who was playing one of the 
characters in it. 

In England, Miss Mannering was known 
on the stage as Florence Friend. She made 
her debut with Mrs. James Brown Potter 
and Kyrle Bellew, in " Hero and Leander," 
and her first part called for the speaking of 
just three lines. She then came under the 
tutorship of Herman Vezin, an American 
and an actor of considerable versatility and 
extraordinary energy, and during her con- 
nection with him she became well known 
and extremely popular in the English prov- 
inces, though London, the goal of the British 



158 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

actor's ambition, knew little or nothing of 
her. Speaking of Mr. Vezin, Miss Manner- 
ing said : 

" I am very grateful to Mr. Vezin, and 
have great admiration for him. He was one 
of the best actors of Shakespearian drama I 
think I ever saw. When I was with him 
I appeared in a number of Shakespeare's 
plays, and I was but eighteen when I acted 
the Queen in ' Hamlet,' while Mr. Vezin, 
then more than sixty years old, was the 
Dane. Fancy a Hamlet of sixty interviewing 
his mother of eighteen ! 

" I do not care much for the part of Rose 
Trelawney," Miss Mannering continued, re- 
ferring to her last season's success. " Per- 
haps it is because I have a craving to play 
more emotional parts. I am anxious to act 
Camille. Indeed, I have longed to try 
Dumas's famous heroine ever since I went 
on the stage. I should like to star as Mar- 
guerite Gauthier, and then, if I were success- 






Mary Mannering. 159 

ful, I should want to add a number of 
Shakespeare's characters to my repertory." 

Miss Mannering' s first appearance with 
the Lyceum Company was made in " The 
Courtship of Leonie," a play that proved a 
failure. Miss Mannering, however, by means 
of her winning personality and gentle woman- 
liness, won the affections of the Lyceum 
patrons, and she has retained them ever 
since. Her personal success was continued 
in " The First Gentleman of Europe," in 
which she played Daphne, and in "The 
Mayflower," though neither drama won any 
great favour. Then came her triumph as 
Fay Zuliani in " The Princess and the But- 
terfly," which was followed last year by her 
beautiful impersonation of Rose Trelawney 
in " Trelawney of the Wells." 

Among all the actors who have such 
important places in Mr. Pinero's fascinating 
comedy, Rose is the only one that is without 
eccentricities and amusing absurdities of 



160 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

thought, speech, and action. Not a charac- 
ter of any great positiveness, — though as 
the play progresses it continually increases 
in emotional power, — the role requires, above 
all things, simplicity and sincerity, and these 
Miss Mannering conveys with rare charm. 
Moreover, her outburst of righteous indigna- 
tion, when she leaves the Gower mansion at 
the end of the second act, and the pathos of 
her position in the theatre, — an actress 
whose experiences in real life had made her 
incapable of ever again successfully present- 
ing the stilted heroines of the artificial drama 
then in vogue, — so delicately indicated in 
the third act, both evidence a dramatic force 
that the character makes little demand upon. 




JULIA ARTHUR 
As Mercedes in " Mercedes 






CHAPTER XV. 

JULIA ARTHUR. 

Ambitious to win a foremost position on 
the English-speaking stage, and thoroughly- 
honest in her resolve to make her fight only 
along the highest lines of artistic endeavour ; 
of surpassing beauty of face, exceptionally 
endowed with the dramatic temperament, 
well schooled in the art of acting ; intelli- 
gent, cultured, sincere, and mentally inde- 
pendent ; a woman who fears not hard work, 
Julia Arthur challenges serious attention 
and deserves every encouragement. Should 
you ask if Julia Arthur is to be considered 
a great actress, I should unhesitatingly reply 
that she is not. She has limitations that she 

as yet shows no indications of going beyond. 
161 



1 62 Famous Actresses of the Day. 






I do not believe, for instance, that she will 
ever play straight comedy with any great 
distinction, though I do not deny that she 
may learn to play it with authority. Miss 
Arthur, however, has still to reach her full 
artistic stature, and the tragic depths of her 
temperament have only partially been re- 
vealed. Unmistakably an actress of promise, 
she is, moreover, one of the three or four 
persons in this country who are actually — 
and at some personal sacrifice, too — accom- 
plishing something for the drama as an art. 

What is the most remarkable characteris- 
tic of Julia Arthur's acting ? Emphatically 
it is her power to burn into the memory of 
the person that sees her in any role whatso- 
ever an impression that never wholly fades 
away. This is a most exceptional gift, for no 
artistic endeavour is so ephemeral as the 
actor's. He creates for the passing moment 
only. He is a sculptor carving imaginary 
statues. He may have genius, strengthened 



Julia Arthur. 163 

by years of observation and study, yet all he 
can expect is to live a little while in the 
memories of those that have themselves 
seen him. The most appreciative of critics 
cannot help him, for the essence of the 
art of acting, the great personal equation 
that, after all, is the backbone of a stage 
impersonation, cannot be conveyed in 
words. 

Less than ten years ago, when a member 
of A. M. Palmer's Madison Square Theatre 
Company, Julia Arthur first demonstrated 
that she had exceptional talent. At that 
time she revealed a power, the full possibili- 
ties of which she has not yet realised. The 
play was "Lady Windermere's Fan," an 
exotic, in which, nevertheless, Miss Arthur 
made plain the tragic element that is so much 
a distinguishing trait of her dramatic person- 
ality, and which has been since more deeply 
felt in her " Mercedes." She was scarcely 
more than a girl in those days, a brunette of 



164 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

the most pronounced type, a face Madonna- 
like, with eyes coal black and limpid, soft and 
caressing in moments of tenderness, welling 
full of tears in moments of sorrow, flashing, 
burning, scornful in moments of passion, 
wonderful eyes of abiding fascination, ap- 
proaching those of Edwin Booth in their 
powers of expression. 

Within this girl there stormed and raved 
a turgid temperament, which she had not 
learned to control. She was in the same 
predicament as an untaught singer, whose 
great voice threatens to tear his throat to 
tatters. Miss Arthur's temperament was 
not refined nor subtle ; it dwelt among the 
basal elements of human nature, among the 
passions of primitive mankind, the fierce 
passions of unreasoning hate and unreasoning 
love. Such was the Julia Arthur of the 
early days, and such, essentially, is the Julia 
Arthur of to-day, for hers is not a tempera- 
ment to change materially, grow and develop 



Julia Arthur. 165 

however much it may. She is a woman of 
magnificent depth of feeling, of great emo- 
tional force, but a woman in whom feminine 
charm, as a dramatic value, is quite non- 
existent. 

Julia Arthur was born in Hamilton, On- 
tario, May 3, 1 869, and her stage life began 
fourteen years later, when she became a 
member of the company of Daniel E. Band- 
mann, an eccentric German tragedian, who 
probably played Shakespeare in more out- 
landish places than any actor that ever lived. 
After three years with Bandmann, and a 
visit abroad, she played in stock companies 
in San Francisco, Savannah, and Halifax, 
Nova Scotia. Then followed a year with 
"The Still Alarm," and another year with 
a Canadian company. In August, 1891, she 
appeared at the Union Square Theatre, New 
York, in " The Black Mask." In November 
she joined A. M. Palmer's company, playing 
Jeanne in "The Broken Seal." The sum- 



1 66 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

mer of 1892 was spent with the Jacob Litt's 
Company in Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

Returning to Mr. Palmer's company in 
the fall, she created in America the part of 
Lady Windermere, which was followed by her 
greatest success in Thomas Bailey Aldrich's 
adaptation from the Spanish, " Mercedes." 
After leaving the Palmer company Miss 
Arthur joined Henry Irving' s forces in 
England, creating Rosamond in Tennyson's 
" Becket," and later appearing with Mr. 
Irving during his American tour. 

In October, 1897, Miss Arthur started 
out as a star in "A Lady of Quality," by 
Stephen Townsend and Mrs. Frances Hodg- 
son Burnett. Her season was interrupted 
during her Boston engagement by illness, 
and at this time, also, her marriage to Ben- 
jamin P. Cheney, of Boston, was announced. 
This alliance put abundant means at Miss 
Arthur's disposal, which she has utilised in 
elaborate productions of Shakespearian and 



Julia Arthur. 167 

classic dramas. Miss Arthur's roles of last 
season were Clorinda Wildairs in "A Lady 
of Quality," Parthenia in " Ingomar," Ros- 
alind in "As You Like It," Galatea in 
" Pygmalion and Galatea," Juliet in " Romeo 
and Juliet," and Mercedes. 

" Mercedes " is a sordid tale of love, jeal- 
ousy, and revenge, and in it Miss Arthur finds 
as she has found in no other play, oppor- 
tunities to reveal in all their brutality the 
animal passions of a woman unrestrained by 
even the conception of refinement. Such 
a woman fits perfectly into the Arthur tem- 
perament, and the characterisation is won- 
derfully complete. 

" A Lady of Quality " is a poor play, 
which last season met its just fate in Eng- 
land, where it failed completely. In this 
country it had considerable vogue, which, 
it is but fair to say, was entirely due to 
Miss Arthur's art. At least, her art was 
sufficient to conceal from the public the 



1 68 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

crudity of the Burnett-Townsend product. 
Miss Arthur, however, was not led astray 
by the popular approval of "A Lady of 
Quality." She soon realised what a wretched 
work of art it was, and she was ready to 
break away from it long before those inter- 
ested with her financially were willing that 
she should. 

The character of Clorinda Wildairs, apart 
from the play, was not an uninteresting one. 
Here was a girl of fearless, passionate dis- 
position, a girl, motherless, who fought her 
way into womanhood side by side with 
roistering men, and through it all — here 
is the inconsistency of the character — 
remained so innocent that she succumbed 
to the wiles of the first man that assailed 
her virtue. Proudly independent, she looked 
the world, man-like, face to face. With 
superb courage she brought her deceiver 
grovelling to her feet. When he refused 
longer to grovel she killed him. 



Julia Arthur. 169 

It will readily be seen that there were 
phases in the character particularly suited 
to Miss Arthur. But the character was by 
no means artistically developed in the play, 
for one saw no growth, only results. Con- 
sequently the great blemish in Miss Arthur's 
acting seemed especially prominent in this 
characterisation. As Clorinda, Miss Arthur 
had great moments, but these moments were 
rarely reached by a crescendo of passion ; 
she seemed to leap into them ; they were 
like lightning flashes, startling in their in- 
tensity and brilliancy, convincing because 
of the inherent dramatic force behind them, 
but unsatisfying because of the inartistic 
way in which they were broached. Matters 
on the stage seemed to be moving along in 
a mildly interesting fashion, when unex- 
pectedly, without warning, came one of 
those Arthur flashes that set the nerves to 
tingling. Miss Arthur had dramatic power 
in abundance at such times. She under- 



170 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

stood and was able to impress forcibly the 
elementals in human nature ; she sounded 
with positiveness the simpler tragic notes, 
scorn and hatred. Despair, as an element, 
did not entirely escape her, but, strangely 
enough, she did not seem to be able to 
depict a woman's despair. 

After Miss Arthur made up her mind 
to try herself in Shakespearian roles, 
she naturally enough first essayed Rosa- 
lind in "As You Like It." Her Rosalind 
proved to be a strikingly original concep- 
tion, abounding in a peculiarly sardonic 
humour and lacking in pure poetic senti- 
ment. It has been extravagantly praised 
— some comparing it to the Rosalind of 
Adelaide Neilson — and it has been extrav- 
agantly blamed. Perhaps as fair an esti- 
mate of her impersonation as any was that 
of Henry Austin Clapp, who said : 

"The most striking peculiarity of Miss 
Arthur's Rosalind is its avoidance of nearly 




JULIA ARTHUR 
As Rosalind in " As You Like It : 






Julia Arthur. 171 

every manifestation of mirthful ebulliency 
and effusion. She laughs seldom, — almost 
not at all, indeed, — and in this defies the 
best held theories of the part. Shake- 
speare's heroine is essentially refined, but 
she is robust of temperament and a hearty, 
persistent lover and practiser of frolic. For 
this well-established scheme Miss Arthur 
substitutes her own, with a perfectly definite 
effect upon the spectator and auditor. Her 
Rosalind is sweet and gentle emotionally; 
intellectually, she is distinguished, shrewd, 
and, above all things, piquant. A fine arch- 
ness, a distinct reserve, a temperamental 
coolness, a great gift in insinuation instead 
of a splendid frankness of statement, are 
combined with effect." 

There is a tradition that Juliet was one of 
Miss Arthur's earlier impersonations. Cer- 
tain it is that her Juliet seems in all particu- 
lars a mature conception. There are many 
moments of great beauty in her reading, 



172 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

The last half of the drama she plays with 
increasing dramatic force that culminates in 
a death scene of touching delicacy and pa- 
thetic import, a death so free from horror 
that it is difficult to realise how full of 
horror and raving it might be. She also has 
moments of quiet intensity and moments of 
sincere emotion that force home powerfully 
the cruel fate that is bearing so remorse- 
lessly on the lovely Veronese. 

However, Miss Arthur, with all her mar- 
vellous beauty, with all her natural equip- 
ment of passionate power, is not an inspired 
Juliet. Her grasp on the poetry of the role 
is weak, and her limitation of temperament 
or narrowness of conception permit her to 
fill only here and there the full measure of 
Juliet's character. Unfortunately, she never 
displays any great sustained emotion nor 
strikes even ever so faintly the note of 
tragic genius. Following tradition closely 
at all times, she too often allows her act- 



Julia Arthur. 173 

ing to become monotonous and without 
colour. 

In the balcony scene she was surprisingly 
effective. It was acted without a touch of 
coquetry and with none of the maidenly 
modesty that speaks and retracts and 
speaks again. Juliet was made a woman 
telling frankly, passionately of her love, and 
planning deliberately and without shame her 
clandestine marriage, The meeting with 
Romeo in Friar Laurence's cell was an- 
other fine moment, and there was much 
pathos in her acting of the quarrel scene 
between father and daughter. The casting 
aside of the nurse, when she advised the 
marriage with Paris, was also well conceived. 
The potion scene passed quietly, with a com- 
mendable absence of heroics and without 
ranting. Indeed, Miss Arthur was always 
artistic in the matter of suppression, and 
she never tore a passion to tatters. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

MAY IRWIN. 

May Irwin is a personality rather than an 
artist, an entertainer more than an actress. 
Her career has vacillated between the variety 
stage and the legitimate, until at last she 
has become identified with that hybrid species 
of the theatrical amusement called farce- 
comedy. Miss Irwin is a famous fun-maker ; 
of jolly, rotund figure, and with a face that 
reflects the gaiety of nations, she is the per- 
sonification of humour and careless mirth, 
a female Falstaff, as it were, whose sixteenth 
century grossness and ribaldry has been 
refined and recast in a nineteenth century 
mould. The old saying, " Laugh and the 
world laughs with you," fits her perfectly, 
574 



May Irwin. 175 

for no one apparently gets any more enjoy- 
ment from her jests than does she herself. 
Her good nature is infinite and her buoyancy 
of spirits irrepressible. Her good-fellowship 
is infectious, and she has a great facility for 
getting on intimate terms with her audi- 
ences, making herself, for the time being, 
the personal friend of every man, woman, and 
child in the theatre the instant that she 
appears on the stage ; and hers is a whole- 
souled, generous friendship, even if on the 
verge of Bohemia. 

May Irwin was born in Whitby, a little 
town in Ontario, Canada, about twenty 
miles from Toronto, and she lived there 
until she went on the stage. When she 
was only eight years old she was the 
soprano in the Episcopal church choir in 
her native village. " Singing came naturally 
to me," she said. " My voice never had 
any cultivation. I harmonised as naturally 
as I talked, my voice was naturally placed, 



176 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

and I produced tones by the law breathing 
taught me, not by any other rule. All 
through my childhood I sang in all the 
cantatas and such folly that is a part of 
going to school." 

May and her sister Flora made their debut 
on the variety stage in Buffalo, New York, 
when they were little tots in short dresses. 
That was in December, 1875, and the salary 
that they received was thirty dollars a week. 
The first thing they sang was " Sweet Gene- 
vieve." Poor Flo was so nervous that after 
it was over she fainted away, and May had 
to sing the encore alone, which she did with 
all the assurance in the world. In fact, I do 
not believe that May Irwin could faint if she 
tried. Engagements in variety theatres on 
a circuit that included Cleveland, St. Louis, 
and Cincinnati followed, and then the chil- 
dren did their first sketch, which was called 
"On Board the Mary Jane." Their third 
season found them at Tony Pastor's in New 



May Irwin. 177 

York, and how that came about Miss Irwin 
tells as follows : 

"It was a great thing for us, for Pastor's 
was the Mecca of all ambitious variety per- 
formers, — it was like heaven to the pious. 
Just to get to Tony Pastor's and be happy 
was in the mind of every struggling variety 
artist the length and breadth of the land. 
Our engagement came about in this way. 
We were appearing in Detroit. It was late 
in the season of 1876-77. We had been 
engaged for two weeks, and had been so 
successful that we stayed six. Tony Pastor's 
company was on tour, making, even in the 
cities, one night stands. On the day the 
company reached Detroit we had a matinee, 
and Pastor came to see us. He left town 
that night to go on to the next stand, and 
he wired back to us, ' Could you open in 
New York at my theatre September 13th? 
Wire terms.' Could we ? Weren't we just 
crazy to ? Sister and I sat up all that night 






178 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

talking about it. Seemed 'sif we were to go 
to sleep that engagement might get away. 
It didn't, and we made our debut in New 
York, September 13, 1877, — -pretty good 
for two children. We stayed there seven 
years. We were engaged for sixty dollars a 
week, and at the end of our connection there 
we were getting eighty dollars. It was a 
small salary compared with what is paid now, 
and I realised it was small then for what we 
did. Our first sketch was ' A Rural Stroll,' 
which we played for four years. I own 
that it was great training, for we had to 
keep our sketch right up to the times. In 
addition to my turn with Flo, I used to 
do the leads in the burlesque which 
always wound up the evening, and those 
burlesques were not written out, you 
know. I used just to get instructions, so 
to speak, and go on and carry them out. 
It's great training, throws you on your own 
resources so. Why, I played everything 






May Irwin. 179 

from babes in arms — fact — to decrepit 
old women." 

Then came the most remarkable event in 
Miss Irwin's theatrical experience, her jump 
from variety at Tony Pastor's to the classic 
atmosphere of Augustin Daly's temple of 
dramatic art. "Oh, I was ambitious," Miss 
Irwin declared, when asked how it happened, 
"and in an ambitious person's career all 
advances seem like heavens — like the Bud- 
dhists, you see, we have a series of heavens. 
Mrs. Gilbert and Miss Rehan used to come 
to Tony Pastor's very often, and finally we 
were playing in Chicago at one theatre while 
Daly's company was playing at Hooley's, and 
Richard Dorney came up to see me one day 
and asked me if I would like to join Daly's. 
Would I ? Well, you could not have kept me 
from it the moment the door was opened. 
The very next morning I met Mr. Daly by 
appointment and signed for three years. At 
the end of that time I reengaged, but only 



180 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

stayed another year, — four in all. It was 
very legitimate and delightful, but it was 
not profitable, and when an offer of three 
times my Daly salary came, just to do a 
single turn with the Boston Howard Athe- 
naeum Star Specialty Company, — well, I 
couldn't resist it." 

Miss Irwin has distinct remembrances of 
her first rehearsal at Daly's. She had been 
accustomed so long to the free and easy way 
of doing things at Pastor's that she had quite 
forgotten what discipline meant. The play 
was Pinero's "Boys and Girls," and Miss 
Irwin was cast for a maiden lady about 
thirty-five years old. She went to rehear- 
sal with her lines nicely memorised and her 
ideas of how the part should be played firmly 
fixed. This is how she tells the story : 

" Now, I had to go on just after the cur- 
tain went up. I was supposed to smell an 
odour of burned fish, and Mr. Daly's direc- 
tions to me were to come down, sniff, lool 



I 



May Irwin. 181 

around and sniff harder. I at once objected 
right out loud. 'Why, no,' I said, 'that 
would be absurd. I should never look 
around for a moment. I should go straight 
to the fireplace, where the smell came from, 
of course. Why, Mr. Daly, do you suppose 
if I smelled something burning in my flat I 
wouldn't know enough to go to the range ? ' 
" The Guv'nor — that's what we called him 
■ — must have been thunderstruck ; every one 
else was ; for the slow voice in which he said, 
' Miss Irwin, I don't allow this,' was the least 
bit choky. I saw what I had done, of course. 
'Very well,' I said, 'I'll try it your way.' 
And I did try, but I couldn't do it. I knew 
I was right, and he was wrong, or I thought 
I did, which is just the same thing, and this 
square jaw of mine just wouldn't let me. 
However, time after time we went over it. 
I think we must have done it twenty times, 
and then it was not much nearer what he 
wanted, but at last we went on. 



1 82 Famous Actresses of the Day. 






" Well, we reached in a few days the sec- 
ond act, and at once struck a familiar snag. 
The Guv'nor was sitting down in the audi- 
torium, and his solemn voice informed me, 
< Not in the least like it ! ' < Well, I'll try 
again,' and I did. Then up to me came the 
remark, ' I wonder where you have left your 
intelligence this morning.' It was the last 
straw. I had never been spoken to like that 
in my life. And before all the company ! I 
tried to take a brace, but I could not, so 
I broke down and blubbered. It was the 
first time I ever did such a thing. 

" ' Go on,' said the inexorable voice, but I 
could only sob, 'Well, now, I guess you'll 
have to wait for me ! ' ' Very well ; skip that 
and go on,' and I retired to a dark corner 
and cried as if my heart were broken. 
Pretty soon Daly hunted me up. ' Come, 
come,' said he, 'you mustn't do this. I 
treat all my people alike. If you don't do 
well, you, as well as I, will be criticised. It 



May Irwin. 183 

is for your sake as much as for mine/ And 
that was the last encounter of that kind that 
we ever had. It did not take me long to 
understand that Mr. Daly knew more than 
I did, and to learn that to follow him was 
to make a hit." 

While with the Howard Athenaeum Com- 
pany the Irwin sisters, as May and Flo were 
billed, produced John J. McNally's first dra- 
matic work, a sketch called " Home Rule." 
During the summer of 1888, Miss Irwin 
played on the Pacific coast, acting Martha in 
Richard Golden's "Jed Prouty" company. 
Another year with the Howard Athenaeum 
Company followed, and then Miss Irwin 
became a member of Russell's "The City 
Directory " company, perhaps the finest 
farce comedy organisation that was ever 
gotten together. In 189 1 she joined Charles 
Froh man's forces, appearing with Henry Mil- 
ler in "The Junior Partner" and after that 
in a burlesque called "The Poet and the 



1 84 Famous Actresses of the Day, 

Puppets." It was in this burlesque that 
she introduced to the public the famous 
song, "After the Ball." At an after-the- 
theatre supper in her room she heard Alex- 
ander Martinetti pick out the air on a guitar. 
The melody pleased her, and she had him 
write it down and fit some words to it. Mr. 
Frohman was opposed to her singing a senti- 
mental song in a burlesque, but he yielded 
to persuasion and let her try it. The song 
was a great hit. 

After " The Poet and the Puppets " Miss 
Irwin became associated with Peter F. Dailey 
in McNally's farce, "The Country Sport." 
For the last three seasons she has starred, 
producing first Mr. McNally's farce-comedy, 
"The Widow Jones," and incidentally mak- 
ing herself famous through her " coon " 
songs and the broad humour and great unc- 
tion that she put into her "rag-time," that 
latter-day syncopated musical freak, whose 
father is the old-time " nigger " minstrel. Her 



May Irwin. 185 

first " rag-time" was "The Bully," in which 
she made great sport by bringing a little 
coloured boy on the stage with her. Miss 
Irwin says the way to learn to sing "rag- 
time " is to catch a negro and study him. 

" I heard during one of my summer vaca- 
tions," she continued, "some particularly 
catchy music sung by negroes working at 
the hotel where I was stopping. The idea 
occurred to me to try it myself. I did try 
it, and I failed. After successive failures I 
decided to find out from headquarters how 
it was sung, and I gave a reception to that 
coloured musical talent. That was the best 
social investment I ever made. By keeping 
everlastingly at it, I finally discovered that 
the rag-time was obtained, not by the voice, 
but by the instrument. With the negroes 
it had been the result of the use of the 
' thumbstring ' on the banjo, by thrumming 
which there was produced the effect of a 
weird chant. The fact that the negroes are 



186 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

so successful in the singing of ' rag-time ' is 
because they have learned to sing to this 
very sort of an accompaniment." 

In the fall of 1897 Miss Irwin brought out 
"The Swell Miss Fitzwell," which she fol- 
lowed last season with another farce-comedy, 
" Kate Kip, Buyer." 







EFFIE SHANNON 



CHAPTER XVII. 

EFFIE SHANNON. 

Effie Shannon, who for several seasons 
has starred with Herbert Kelcey in Clyde 
Fitch's "The Moth and The Flame," in 
which she played the leading emotional 
character, first attracted attention as the 
ingenue of Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Thea- 
tre Company, in the days when Georgia 
Cayvan and Mr. Kelcey were the chief 
actors, and Fritz Williams the youthful come- 
dian of that organisation, and when such 
sentimental plays as "The Wife" and "The 
Charity Ball " were considered the height 
of artistic dramatic achievement. Miss 
Shannon, although her name is good, honest 

Irish, is a genuine Yankee. Her father was 

187 



1 88 Famous Actresses of the Day, 

a native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
and her mother was born in Haverhill, Mas- 
sachusetts. Miss Shannon herself claims 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, as her birthplace, 
and there she lived when she received her 
initiation into stage life as a child actress in 
several of the Boston theatres. Her debut 
was made in John McCullough's revival of 
" Coriolanus " at the Boston Theatre. All 
that she remembers of this performance 
was the fact that she appeared with many 
others, and threw wreaths in front of the 
triumphant hero. " It was a pleasant expe- 
rience, however," Miss Shannon added, " and 
it gave me a taste of the life in which I have 
found so much enjoyment. " 

Her second character was Eva in " Uncle 
Tom's Cabin," which she played at the 
Howard Athenaeum in Boston, then under 
the management of the late John Stetson. 
James S. Maffit, the pantomimist, afterward 
so long identified with the character of the 



Effie Shannon. 189 

Lone Fisherman in "Evangeline," was the 
Lawyer Marks. Luke Martin was the Legree, 
and Mrs. Morse, who was one of the actors 
in the original production of the first drama- 
tisation of Mrs. Stowe's novel, played Aunt 
Ophelia. The company, on the conclusion 
of the Boston engagement, toured New 
England. 

" I shall never forget the feeling of pride 
which I experienced when I saw the bills of 
that production of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,'" 
Miss Shannon remarked. "There in big 
letters could be read, ' Eva, La Petite Shan- 
non.' And I would stand in front of the 
bill-boards for hours, reading and re-reading 
my own name, wondering why larger crowds 
were not attracted by those delightful 
letters." 

A little later Miss Shannon appeared 
in children's parts with Lawrence Barrett 
at the Boston Museum, and she was also 
in the children's production of " Pinafore " 



190 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

at the same theatre, regarding which she 
tells the following amusing story : 

" I was merely one of the sisters and 
cousins and aunts, because my singing voice 
was never phenomenal, and although I 
served as understudy to some of the other 
girls I never had an opportunity to appear. 
Do you remember that cast ? There was 
Ida Miille, the Josephine, and then Fritz 
Williams was the Sir Joseph Porter, and 
how we girls adored him ! There was not 
a tot in that chorus who was not madly in 
love with the Admiral as he strutted around 
the stage in all the dignity of his position. I 
remember very well how I brought my auto- 
graph album for him to write in, and how he 
scrawled in his round, boyish hand, * I am 
the monarch of the sea. Fritz Williams.' 
In later years, when Mr. Williams and I were 
members of the Lyceum Company in New 
York, I produced that autograph album and 
confronted him with it. It was the first time 



Effie Shannon. 191 

that he had suspected that we had ever been 
in the same company before, and he was 
greatly surprised as he exclaimed, ' Were you 
that little yellow-haired girl ? ' and I admitted 
that I was." 

When the " Pinafore " run came to an end 
Miss Shannon's mother took her to New 
York, where she received her education. Her 
first appearance in adult parts was with a 
company playing " The Silver King." Then 
she travelled with Robert Mantell, after 
which she was with the Daly company for 
a year and a half. This proved an excellent 
school for her, but, in common with other 
talented players who have been members of 
that company, she was given few chances to 
demonstrate her ability. From Daly's she 
went to the New York Lyceum Theatre, and 
there met with her greatest successes. As 
the romp, Kittie Ives, in "The Wife," and 
as the piquant, saucy Kate in " The Idler," 
she showed the genuine soubrette talent, 



192 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

while as Bess in "The Charity Ball" she 
combined with it that sweet, sympathetic 
quality that the French termed "ingenue." 
In 1893 Miss Shannon joined Rose Cogh- 
lan's company, playing Dora in "Diplomacy," 
a r61e of which she is very fond. After 
that she was with Mrs. Lily Langtry in her 
unfortunate production of "The City of 
Pleasure," and her next engagement was in 
support of Olga Nethersole. Then came 
her starring tour with Mr. Kelcey, after the 
successful run of "The Moth and the 
Flame" in New York City. 




MRS. LESLIE CARTER 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

MRS. LESLIE CARTER. 

Mrs. Leslie Carter's stage career began 
on November 10, 1890, when she made her 
debut in New York in "The Ugly Duckling." 
Since that time she has publicly acted just 
three parts, the Quakeress in " Miss Hel- 
yett," Maryland Calvert in "The Heart of 
Maryland," and Zaza in " Zaza," and yet at 
present she is accounted one of the leading 
actresses on the American stage. Surely 
this is a record unique in theatrical history. 
Let it not be thought, however, that Mrs. 
Carter's stage life has been all cakes and 
ale. Far from it. Nine years of hard work 
and constant study lie behind her, and while 
she has publicly acted only four charac- 
193 



194 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

ters, she has thoroughly prepared and pri- 
vately played time and time again over a 
score of parts. 

Mrs. Carter's phenomenal success is due 
to the professional skill, critical judgment 
and untiring efforts of Mr. David Belasco, 
who took charge of her dramatic training 
just before her appearance in "The Ugly 
Duckling." When he accepted her as a 
pupil, Mr. Belasco showed the keenest acu- 
men. At that time Mrs. Carter seemed to 
have but few of the physical advantages that 
one associates with success on the stage. 
Indeed, it might be said that her only favour- 
able point apparent at first sight was her 
hair, wonderfully heavy and a fiery red, that 
framed her pale face in a burning halo. Per- 
haps Mr. Belasco noted her eyes, deeply gray 
and serious ; possibly he was attracted by 
the expressive play of her features, or may- 
hap he pinned faith on that firmly set 
mouth and stern lower jaw. However it 






Mrs. Leslie Carter. 195 

came about, the contract was made, and 
Mrs. Carter gave herself unreservedly into 
her trainer's keeping. She became for all 
practical purposes Mr. Belasco's willing slave. 
Mrs. Carter's work in "The Ugly Duck- 
ling " was plainly that of a novice. " Crude 
but full of promise," was how Mr. Belasco 
characterised it, and it may be said that 
he was sanguine rather than otherwise. " I 
shall never forget the first night I played," 
said Mrs. Carter, in describing her debut. 
" I stood like a dummy waiting for my time 
to come for walking on the stage, and when 
that soft, swelling music that heralded my 
approach reached my ears didn't I wish to 
die right there! I stood as if chained 
to where I was until it was almost past 
the time. Douglas Oakley, the hero in 
' The Ugly Duckling,' said : * Kate, bonnie 
Kate ! ' as he lay on the hearth looking at 
my picture, — not my own real picture, of 
course. Then Mr. Belasco said, ' Move now 



ig6 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

or the play is ruined/ You may be sure I 
felt far from being a ' bonnie Kate ! ' The 
clapping of hands brought me to my senses 
and then I warmed to my work. Somehow 
or other the very naturalness of the first 
incidents helped to reassure me," 

"Miss Helyett," which followed, was a 
musical comedy, and in it Mrs. Carter really 
met with much success. It was an awkward 
little part, demure and quiet. She continued 
with it, improving constantly, until March, 
1893, when she closed her season in Kansas 
City and disappeared. No one knew what 
had become of her; in fact, no one cared 
very much, and when, in October, 1895, she 
emerged from her retirement to make an 
astonishing success in Mr. Belasco's play, 
-The Heart of Maryland," the surprise was 
complete. What Mrs. Carter did during 
that mysterious year and a half, which was 
passed in her New York apartments at 63 
Clinton Place, is best related in her own words. 



Mrs. Leslie Carter. 1 97 

" Ah, yes, I was a crude beginner in ' Miss 
Helyett,' yet before I got through with that 
role I had learned a great deal. One thing 
I did obtain was muscular control. It gave 
me equipoise, repose. But it was during my 
retirement that I began to study with brain 
and will. In that time I went through fifty- 
eight plays with Mr. Belasco. I set my 
teeth and always kept before me the play 
he was writing around me, so to speak, and 
I was determined nothing should dash my 
energies. I would rehearse every phase of 
an emotion, until I could portray it with 
more or less facility. 

" How were all my little rehearsals at 
home conducted ? Ah, they were pretty sad 
at times. Mr. Belasco would select a role, 
talk with me upon it, make suggestions, an- 
swer questions, and then leave me to work 
it out. I would not see him, probably, for a 
week or ten days. Meanwhile, I acted and 
reacted, and posed and posed, and worked 



198 Famotts Actresses of the Day. 

often with one single gesture or one single 
vocal inflection for half a day at a time. 
One thing I always did attend to, I never 
forsook the weak place to return to it again. 
I went on to nothing else until I had in some 
sensible way conquered the difficulty. And 
this was where I found the horrible discour- 
agement of dramatic technique. If you write 
or if you sew, you see the result of your labour 
before your eyes ; you are buoyed up in your 
work by visible encouragement. In dramatic 
study you go over and over and see nothing 
for so long for your slavish repetition and 
expenditure of energy. You know simply 
you are aiming at something and you are 
not getting it. But, after awhile, I found 
out about that. It comes at once. Before 
you stop to realise, there is a lesson accom- 
plished ; it becomes a spontaneous effort. 
You don't think any more of control. The 
action is part of yourself when merged in 
that role, and performs itself unconsidered. 



Mrs. Leslie Carter. 199 

"After my days of work alone, Mr. Be- 
lasco would come in the evening, and then 
the chairs and tables were swept away, and 
we had a stage. He read the other parts 
and I rehearsed my role. Nine times out of 
ten I was all wrong at my first trial. ' Not a 
bit like it,' Mr. Belasco would say, and then, 
in his corrections made upon my practical 
study, I learned my valuable lesson. It hurt 
sometimes, but when I set to study on the 
amended plan I always felt I had achieved 
something I was not going to lose again, and 
I realised my growing strength. 

" From what roles do I consider I derived 
most benefit ? There are two uppermost in 
my mind. First, Beatrice, by all means. 
Her character has so many phases. It 
seemed to embrace almost everything I 
needed. I lived with Beatrice and thought 
with her, and made her moods my own, and 
then failed with her on my mimic stage 
when Mr. Belasco rehearsed me at night, 



200 Famous Actresses of the Day. 



and went back again and conceived another 
Beatrice in this mood, and yet another Bea- 
trice in that, and changed my ideal a dozen 
times, always working faithfully on the new 
until at last Mr. Belasco approved me in the 
part as a whole. No study, however, no 
practice technically legitimate, is lost even 
where the ideal be fictitious. You gain 
flexibility in a detail which will fit in else- 
where. Leah is the other role which did won- 
ders for me in the mastery of the stronger 
emotions. Those long speeches of hers em- 
brace a volume of lessons, and after these two 
characters I have no special identification of 
improvement with the others. They brought 
about a general advancement." 

Mrs. Carter played Maryland Calvert in 
this country for three seasons, and then 
appeared in London in the same character, 
opening at the Adelphi Theatre, April 9, 1 898. 
Her success there was all that could be de- 
sired, the play running for 145 performances. 



Mrs. Leslie Carter. 201 

" Zaza," in which Mrs. Carter achieved 
such a triumph last season, was produced 
in Washington, December 26, 1898, and the 
dramatic critics of the capital immediately 
described the play as a masterpiece, and 
named the actress " the American Bern- 
hardt." " Zaza " was originally a French 
drama written by Simon and Berton for 
Rejane, by whom it was brought out at the 
Vaudeville Theatre, Paris. The English 
version is by Mr. Belasco, who succeeded 
in the difficult task of ridding the work 
of the French audaciousness that charac- 
terised it in the original, still retaining in 
full the play's strong dramatic interest. Mr. 
Belasco's artistic touch was sure until the 
last act, when he erred for the sake of a 
happy ending. " Zaza " tells the pathetic 
story of a music hall actress, who rises from 
a depth of illicit love to a height of pure 
self-abnegation. The ethics and morality 
of the drama have been widely discussed, 






202 Famous Actresses of the Day. 



and, as usual, the points raised have been 
answered strictly according to the particular 
arguer's bias. Mrs. Carter's role calls for 
emotional acting of the strongest and most 
varied character, and there has been no 
great difference of opinion regarding the 
power and impressiveness of her personation. 
The following critique is that of Franklin 
Fyles : 

" Good stage literature as the play was, 
and almost faultless as the stage craft of 
its representation was generally, there was 
one thing which eclipsed all else in a 
triumph seldom equalled in a theatre. That 
portion of the occasion's success, and much 
the largest cause of it, was the acting of 
Mrs. Leslie Carter. Not since Bernhardt 
was here had New York seen any approach 
to the Bernhardt kind of art in dramatic 
expression. It was a more versatile and 
varied performance, it is only the truth to 
say, than any other American player, man 






Mrs. Leslie Carter. 203 

or woman, is capable of giving. Through 
the first act Zaza was no more than a 
wanton, not ashamed of herself, because she 
neither knew nor cared anything about 
virtue. The place was behind the scenes 
of a variety stage, and the depiction of life 
in the purlieus of the theatre was ruth- 
lessly illustrated. In it the low-bred hero- 
ine figured as the mischievous enticer of 
a man. In the next act she was shown 
with him in a home of forbidden love, happy 
in her faithfulness to him, and with never 
a thought or expectation of becoming his 
wife. In the third, she was at his house 
in Paris, wild at first with the desire of 
retaliation for his deception, then touched 
pitifully by the sight of his child that re- 
sembled him, and then won over to self- 
sacrificial silence. In the fourth, she was 
back at her home, well-nigh crazed by grief, 
utterly heart-broken, changeful of purpose, 
clinging desperately to a belief in the man's 



. 



204 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

love until convinced beyond hope that he 
would not let his mistress take him from 
his wife, and then madly vehement in her 
denunciation of him. It was at this climax 
that the assemblage let itself loose in a 
tremendously enthusiastic demonstration. 

" What Mrs. Carter had done to warrant 
so much approbation at that time will surely 
stand the severest test of calmer criticism, 
and still stand as proof positive of genius. 
She has passed from farcical moments to 
those of the deepest emotion ; from heart- 
less coquetry to passionate love ; from care- 
lessness to despair, and all with equal facility. 
In none of the sharply contrasting phases 
of the creature's experience had she lapsed 
a moment from the essential attributes of 
the character. Such a portrayal could have 
been based only on a thorough and minute 
analysis of the role which Mr. Belasco may 
have made for her, but the embodiment of 
it in a way to render it graphic down to tlie 



Mrs. Leslie Carter. 205 

minutest detail, and to do this so that 
laughter and tears followed each other as 
she willed them to, was a triumph of her 
own genius. She had advanced steadily 
from crudity to the finest of artistic success." 



. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



MARY SHAW. 



Mary Shaw had long been considered 
one of the finest leading women in this 
country, when she made the greatest success 
of her career at the close of last season as 
Mrs. Alving in John Blair's special produc- 
tion of Ibsen's " Ghosts " in New York City. 
" Ghosts," whatever one may think of its 
morbidness and its unpleasant investigations 
into medical science, is certainly one of the 
strongest acting dramas known to the mod- 
ern theatre, and its characters afford opportu- 
nities for wonderfully effective work to actors 
that have the ability and training to realise 
them. Miss Shaw's theatrical experience 
has been wide-extended. It has embraced 
zq6 



Mary Shaw. 20? 

many of the chief roles of the classic drama 
in addition to numberless parts in plays of 
less enduring worth. Her talents, too, are 
of an exceptional order. They found in the 
Ibsen play just the material they wanted, 
and the result was a success that astonished 
even her most enthusiastic admirers, who 
could hardly have expected so much from 
her in her first impersonation of an Ibsen 
creation. 

Mrs. Alving is, perhaps, the most com- 
plete character in the Ibsen drama. She 
is a witness of, rather than a participant in, 
the sins and weaknesses of mankind. Her 
life is devoted to concealing from public 
view the debaucheries of her husband, a 
libertine of the vilest sort, with the result 
that he dies universally respected, leaving 
a son to inherit all the father's mental and 
physical diseases. The son, ignorant of the 
evil which has been passed down to him, 
returns from school in the first stages of 



208 Famous Actresses of the Day. 



paresis, imagining that his health has failed 
because of overwork. The end is incurable 
madness, for the mother, at the last moment, 
finds herself unable to administer the dose of 
morphia that was to end the boy's life when 
his mind failed entirely. It is a horrible 
play, frightfully depressing in its fatalism, 
but its dramatic strength is tremendous. 

" Ibsen's dramas will finally be made 
familiar by the actors because they afford 
such opportunities for the display of intelli- 
gence, power, and technical skill as are to 
be found in hardly any other plays in exist- 
ence," wrote a New York critic. " Hardly 
an Ibsen play is acted in New York without 
greatly bettering the reputation of some one 
or two actors. When ' Ghosts ' was first 
given, a few years ago, it revealed Courtney 
Thorpe as the paretic son in a wholly new 
light of intellectual capacity. < John Gabriel 
Borkman ' revealed Maude Banks as very 
close to a great actress ; Mrs. Fiske's nota- 



Mary Shaw. 209 

ble advance in power was first shown in a 
matinee of 'The Doll's House/ and New 
York had its only test of the talent of 
Elizabeth Robins in * Hedda Gabler.' Last 
night the honours fell to Mary Shaw, who 
has long been known as one of the most 
capable actresses on our stage, but whose 
Mrs. Alving shows an intellectual grasp of 
Ibsen's idea and a command of resources 
of expression far beyond the reach of any 
but great actresses. As the chief actor of 
a theatre devoted to the modern intellectual 
drama, Miss Shaw would be a power." 

" Miss Shaw gave a most impressive reve- 
lation of Mrs. Alving' s general competency 
as a woman," declared Norman Hapgood. 
" In the scenes with the pastor she had a 
sweet and kindly manner of looking all 
around him and sizing him up. As she 
stood there reducing all organised society 
to a conventional spectre, she looked so 
beneficent and serious that the woman stood 






210 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

out far above her rebellious theories and 
took the outlines of a great dramatic figure." 
Mary Shaw comes of an old New England 
family. Her father is Levi W. Shaw, who 
is connected with the Inspection of Build- 
ings Department of the city of Boston. The 
family originally lived in Wolfboro, N. H., 
where the homestead, now two hundred and 
fifty years old, still stands, and Miss Shaw 
has in her possession old pewter plates, fam- 
ily heirlooms, from which pieces have been 
cut to be moulded into Colonial bullets. She 
was born and educated in Boston, graduated 
from the grammar and high schools of that 
city, and before she went on the stage taught 
for a short time in the Boston public schools. 
Her voice gave out under the strain of school- 
room work, and that led her to study elocu- 
tion, which in turn directed her attention to 
the stage. She became acquainted with 
Annie Clarke, then the leading lady of the 
Boston Museum Stock Company, and through 



Mary Shaw. 211 

her she met R. M. Field, the manager of the 
Museum. There did not seem to be any 
opening in the Museum Company at that 
time, however, and, armed with a letter of 
introduction to Dion Boucicault from John 
Boyle O'Reilly, Miss Shaw went to New 
York. She was not successful in that city, 
either, and she returned home and for a time 
satisfied her histrionic ambition by appearing 
in amateur theatricals. One of her perform- 
ances in this line was Kate Hardcastle in 
"She Stoops to Conquer," which she played 
in the vestry of the East Boston Unitarian 
Church. 

Finally, in 1879, sne was engaged as the 
Chorus in an extravaganza at the Boston 
Museum, called "A Robisonade," and her 
first appearance was made through the floor 
by means of a trap. The first play that she 
appeared in was a revival of "Diplomacy," 
and the occasion was also E. H. Sothern's 
first night. 



212 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

"We had two small parts," said Miss 
Shaw, recalling the incident. " He was a 
French valet and I the maid, and we had 
quite a little scene — perhaps ten minutes. 
Eddie entered and spoke half a dozen words, 
looked at me wildly for a moment, and then 
fairly flew from the stage. I meekly fol- 
lowed him. We were fined five dollars 
apiece and retired to the positions of walk- 
ing gentleman and lady for some time. The 
next time we were entrusted with parts was 
in 'Pippins,' in which Eddie did so well 
that he was quite restored to favour. He 
was a dear boy ! " 

Miss Shaw made her first pronounced 
hit at the Museum in a play called " A 
Midsummer Madness." She was advanced 
rapidly in the company, and, to use her own 
words, "simply played everything." After 
two years she went to Augustin Daly's com- 
pany in New York, securing this engage- 
ment through Fanny Davenport, whom 



Mary Shaw. 213 

Miss Shaw supported at the Museum in 
"Pique." 

"Miss Davenport met me after the play, 
in the wings," Miss Shaw said, "and, after 
complimenting me on my performance, asked 
me if I didn't want to go with her. < I can 
only give you fifty dollars a week at pres- 
ent,' she remarked. The sum appeared al- 
most fabulous to me. It seemed like the 
instant realisation of all my fondest and most 
cherished dreams, and it came upon me so 
suddenly that I was nearly struck dumb with 
surprise and gratitude. I had all I could 
possibly do to keep from showing Miss Dav- 
enport that I was surprised, yes, more than 
that, astounded, at her liberal offer. I man- 
aged, however, to control my feelings suffi- 
ciently, and, thanking her for her kindness, 
said I would think it over, speaking as indif- 
ferently as though I had had a hundred 
offers equally as good. Then I went home, 
and that night I never slept a wink, because 



214 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

I was afraid she would change her mind and 
withdraw the offer." 

After a season with Daly, Miss Shaw sup- 
ported Miss Davenport on the road in the 
old comedies. She then appeared in " Young 
Mrs. Winthrop," under Daniel Frohman's 
management, after which she joined Mo- 
djeska, with whom she remained five sea- 
sons, appearing in prominent roles in the 
Modjeska repertory, which at that time in- 
cluded the rarely acted "Two Gentlemen 
of Verona" and "Measure for Measure." 
It was while she was with Modjeska that 
Miss Shaw had a conversation with Mat- 
thew Arnold about her conception of Queen 
Elizabeth in " Mary Stuart." 

" I met him," said Miss Shaw, " at one of 
Modjeska' s receptions in New York, and he 
said, ' I want to talk with you about your 
Queen Elizabeth.' I found that he objected 
to my impersonation as making her too 
feminine, too tender, dragged by fate, against 



Mary Shaw. 215 

her will, to the execution of Mary. 'The 
Elizabeth you represent is not the Elizabeth 
of history,' he said. And I replied : ' Mr. 
Arnold, when I was given that part I was 
not asked to play Mr. Hume's, or Mr. Ma- 
caulay's, or Mr. Froude's Elizabeth, but Mr. 
Schiller's. Schiller saw in the story of these 
two women only deep humanity in all its 
environments, and he analysed them with 
his own heart and brain. He did not care 
for history. And when I read the part I 
tried to read Schiller into it, to feel as he 
felt, to see with his eyes, and so I dis- 
missed the historian.' Mr. Arnold leaned 
back in his chair and said, 'I believe you 
are right.' " 

When Miss Shaw left Modjeska, she be- 
came connected with the Julia Marlowe 
company, with which she remained a season. 
A season as a star in a comedy from the 
German, called " A Drop of Poison," fol- 
lowed, and then she became Helen Barry's 



216 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

chief support in a successful farce called 
"A Night's Frolic." In 1893 Miss Shaw 
was the Rosalind in the production of " As 
You Like It," by the Professional Women's 
League. When Mrs. Fiske produced " Tess 
of the D'Urbervilles," Miss Shaw made a 
great impression as Marion. Since leaving 
Mrs. Fiske, Miss Shaw has acted chiefly in 
special productions in New York. 





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4 


' 1 



OLGA NETHERSOLE 
As Paula in " The Second Mrs. Tanqueray " 



CHAPTER XX. 

OLGA NETHERSOLE. 

Olga Nethersole is by birth and train- 
ing an English actress, and in a strict clas- 
sification she would naturally be given to 
that country ; but she is so universally known 
in the United States, and her presence here 
of late years has been so constant, that it 
has seemed proper to stretch a point and 
include her among the American players. 
A woman of much personal force, she has 
during the past season established herself 
as a great dramatic artist by her wonderfully 
vivid acting of Paula Tanqueray in Arthur 
Wing Pinero's masterpiece, "The Second 
Mrs. Tanqueray.' ' 

The Nethersole Paula is a most fascinat- 
217 



218 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

ing study. The actress has the character 
so absolutely under control ; she under- 
stands so clearly every phase of the woman's 
mind ; she is so sensitive to every emotion 
that Paula feels ; she conceives so fully the 
motives underlying Paula's every act, that 
the spectator sees, not Paula, the creation 
of Pinero's fancy, but Paula, a living, suffer- 
ing member of the human family. Olga 
Nethersole lays bare the soul of Paula Tan- 
queray. It is a soul seared and scarred with 
many burnings, the soul of a woman whose 
natural nobility of character is too great to 
be entirely debased, even by a life of har- 
lotry ; for Paula, removed from her environ- 
ment of sin, her lungs breathing in an 
atmosphere of purity, quickly has reawak- 
ened her instincts for honesty and for 
truth. 

Do you call such a character impossible, 
out of tune with human nature ? I do not 
think so. Impurity does not by any means 



Olga Nethersole. 219 

signify total depravity, and I venture to 
claim that in life's byways and hedges one 
might find many potential Paulas. 

Paula's cynicism and her loss of ideal were 
the natural results of her wayward life. She 
had sacrificed her innocence, and she did not 
see the world through eyes blinded with 
purity. But her moral sense was sure, and 
she knew human nature, particularly woman 
nature, down to the rock bottom. More- 
over, she understood herself, and the curious 
flashes of analytical light that she shed on 
her own motives, especially during moments 
of severe emotional strain were great unveil- 
ers of character. 

Miss Nethersole' s authority in this exact- 
ing role was simply beyond question. From 
the beautiful, sensual creature of the first act 
to the broken-hearted, broken-spirited woman 
of the last act was a far reach, but there was 
no step in the intervening distance that the 
dramatist did not prepare with masterly sub- 



220 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

tilty, and there was no point in the drama- 
tist's development that the actress did not 
seize upon with absolute surety and expound 
with convincing sincerity. Physically Miss 
Nethersole realised the character perfectly. 
Her exuberant beauty, which she so bounti- 
fully displayed in the first act, explained 
Tanqueray's infatuation almost without the 
sensuality of look and caress that she lav- 
ished upon him. Sensuality, it should be 
stated, vanished entirely after the first act, 
giving way before Paula's growing woman- 
liness. 

I have found it extremely difficult to write 
of Miss Nethersole's acting in this character, 
for she gave me no impression of detail and 
no idea of Olga Nethersole apart from Paula 
Tanqueray. Surely the art of acting can do 
no more than that. 

Olga Nethersole was born in Kensington, 
London, and was educated at private schools, 
partly in England and partly in Germany. 



Olga Nethersole. 221 

The death of her father made it necessary 
for her to choose some vocation, and she 
decided on the stage. Prior to 1887 she 
had occasionally acted, but her professional 
career really began in the spring of that 
year, when she joined Charles Hawtrey's 
company at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, 
appearing in a low comedy part, Lettice 
Vane in Henry Hamilton's play, " Harvest." 
About a year and a half was spent by Miss 
Nethersole in the English provinces, and her 
first London appearance was made in July, 
1888, at the Royal Adelphi Theatre, in "The 
Union Jack," by Sidney Grundy and Henry 
Pettitt. Other engagements in London at 
the St. James's Theatre, in "The Dean's 
Daughter," and at the Strand Theatre fol- 
lowed, and then at the opening of the Gar- 
rick Theatre Miss Nethersole became a 
member of John Hare's company, appear- 
ing in Pinero's "The Profligate," in "La 
Tosca," and " A Fool's Paradise." 






222 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

While still on the roster of this company, 
with which she was connected four years, 
she visited Australia with Charles Cart- 
wright, remaining there ten months and 
appearing in a varied repertory which in- 
cluded "The Idler," "Moths," and "The 
Village Priest." On returning to England 
she rejoined Mr. Hare's company at the 
Garrick Theatre, and immediately evidenced 
the remarkable improvement she had made 
in her methods by her experience in Aus- 
tralia. During the time she was with Mr. 
Hare she played successfully the part of 
Zicka in the memorable revival of Sar- 
dou's " Diplomacy." An engagement at 
the Criterion followed, where Miss Nether- 
sole achieved distinction in the leading role 
of Isaac Henderson's drama, "The Silent 
Battle," and in January, 1894, she leased 
the Royal Court Theatre and successfully 
produced "The Transgressor." 

The following fall she came to this coun- 



Olga Nethersole. 223 

try, making her American debut at Palmer's 
Theatre, New York, on October 15 th, and 
subsequently making a most successful tour 
of the country. She played besides "The 
Transgressor," Marguerite Gauthier in " Ca- 
mille," Gilberte in " Frou-Frou," and Juliet 
in " Romeo and Juliet." In May, 1895, Miss 
Nethersole assumed the chief role in "The 
Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith," at the Garrick, 
London, following Mrs. Patrick Campbell. 
That fall she again visited America, having 
added to her repertory " Denise " and " The 
Wife of Scarli." June 6, 1896, she produced 
" Carmen " at the Gaiety Theatre, London, 
which play made an immense sensation in 
this country the following winter. Last 
season, Miss Nethersole' s fourth in the 
United States, was devoted to " The Second 
Mrs. Tanqueray," a poetical drama, "The 
Termagant," and "The Profligate." 

Miss Nethersole is a strikingly handsome 
woman, slightly under medium height, with 



224 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

2l figure slender, sinuous, and graceful. Her 
eyes are large and brilliant, a dark gray in 
colour, though it is difficult to be sure of this, 
for they change constantly with every passing 
thought and emotion. Her crowning glory is 
her luxuriant hair, which is of a peculiar 
tawny shade. She rarely wears a wig on the 
stage, though many have found it difficult to 
believe that the rich mass of hair, which 
sometimes seems a ruddy hue and other 
times almost bronze, is really her own. 

" The Transgressor " by A. W. Gattie, in 
which Miss Nethersole made her first appear- 
ance in this country, was a somewhat crude 
play of the " problem" order, and in it the 
actress's opportunities to show her emotional 
power were somewhat limited. Regarding 
her debut, William Winter wrote : 

"Miss Nethersole gained the confidence 
and friendship of her audience at once, and 
earned the hearty greeting she received. 
She has the quality of charm which is so 



Olga Net hers ole. 225 

invaluable on the stage, and the lack of 
which cannot be counterbalanced by any 
amount of industry or study. She gains 
sympathy by the simple force of person- 
ality. In the technicalities of her art she 
is accomplished, but not always finished and 
matured. The fullness and roundness of her 
power are not yet reached. She has youth, 
beauty, grace, and self-command. Her voice 
is musical and her manner refined. With 
these qualities she will surely be admired 
and will make her way. Greater authority 
and command may come hereafter. Through 
two acts last night Miss Nethersole had 
little to do but to be on the stage for a 
part of the time. Her talk was bright and 
snappy, and her face was gay and sunny. 
These things pleased so far as they went. 
They showed that the actress was at home 
on the stage and that it was likely to be 
agreeable at any time to see her there. They 
showed that she had elegance and repose, 



226 Famous Actresses of the Day. 






highly desirable qualities, essential indeed. 
But that was all. At the end of the third 
act she had a scene of a sort which it is com- 
mon to designate as ' strong.' It was not sen- 
sible, and it was not womanly. She could not 
enforce the conviction that such a woman as 
she had shown herself to be would do what 
she did. She did show that she could reach 
a fine emotional height, but the act of the 
woman whose part she played seemed incred- 
ible, and she did not make it seem anything 
else." 

Miss Nethersole made her greatest suc- 
cess that first season in " Camille." It was 
an intensely realistic impersonation, deeply 
emotional and ardently passionate, an im- 
personation that moved one by its great 
dramatic vigour rather than by subtilty of 
conception or finish in acting. At that time 
Miss Nethersole displayed a certain crudity 
of method and a proneness to exaggeration 
which later developed into those unpleasant 



Olga Netkersole. 227 

mannerisms of speech and gesture that so 
marred some of her work. Yet she made 
Camille so affecting that at times her pathos 
touched the heart with a feeling that was 
almost too genuine for comfort. She was 
at her best in the scene with M. Duval, a 
scene which she played with uncommon 
dignity and a tender simplicity that rarely 
failed to win the tribute of tears. Last year 
Miss Nethersole introduced a novelty in 
her performance of the play by costuming 
the characters in the fashions of 1841, the 
time the drama was written. The idea, I 
believe, was originated by Sarah Bernhardt. 

Miss Nethersole's Juliet was not highly 
esteemed. While she had moments of 
genuine power, her acting as a whole was 
uneven, besides being hurt by undue force 
and intensity. Her balcony scene was well 
done, but the scene in which Juliet learns 
of Tybalt's death and Romeo's banishment, 
and especially the potion scene, she almost 



228 Famous Actresses of the Day. 






ruined by overacting. Dr. William J. Rolfe, 
the Shakespearian scholar, however, found 
much to commend in the impersonation, re- 
garding which he wrote to Miss Nethersole : 
" One of the best features of your ren- 
dering of Juliet, as it seemed to me, was the 
clear distinction you made between the girl 
of sixteen (or fourteen, as Shakespeare 
makes her, and I think you might retain 
the old text in that matter) and the woman 
she becomes under the influence of love 
and sorrow. I am aware that some of the 
professional critics find fault with you for 
this, but I think they should rather give 
you special praise for it. For myself, I 
liked all the points in which your persona- 
tion of the Veronese heroine differed from 
the conventional Juliet on the stage. I 
believe that if in some respects it does not 
now please critical judges, it will gradually 
commend itself to the best of them, if not 
to all. I have no doubt that I should enjoy 



Olga Nethersole. 229 

it more a second or third time than I did 
at first, though, as I have said, I liked it 
even then." 

I should be pleased to omit any refer- 
ence to " Carmen," but the notoriety of the 
Nethersole kiss will hardly permit that. 
The adaptation of the novel that Miss 
Nethersole used, made a filthy play in which 
lust and animal passion were shown with 
disgusting frankness. Even if one ignored 
the vileness, he found but a cheap melo- 
drama, poorly constructed at that, and 
abounding in mock heroics, false platitudes, 
and cheap sentiment. The play lacked a 
vestige of the romanticism that idealised 
the opera, and made it a thing apart from 
the essential nastiness of the theme. Miss 
Nethersole' s acting was a study in lascivious- 
ness, marvellously vivid and marvellously 
true to life. Indeed, therein was the chief 
cause for censure. 

Before "The Termagant," by Louis N. 



^30 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Parker and Murray Carson, was produced, 
Miss Nethersole spoke thus of the work : 

" It is a dramatic poem, beautiful and 
simple, as dainty as a gossamer. There is 
one scene in the second act that I like the 
best. There the love story is told simply, 
very simply, and an old well is there by 
which the cavalier and his loved one stand. 
It is in the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
you know, and the characters are dressed 
in the exquisite costumes of the fifteenth 
century. As the lovers talk they take the 
old well into their secret, and make of it 
their confidant, and trust their story to its 
deep waters. There is another scene where 
she tries to poison him, and in the last act 
the threads are gathered up, and the char- 
acters hold a court of love, just as they did 
in those old romantic days." 

Miss Nethersole, however, misjudged the 
play sadly, for it proved a failure from the 
first. It was an extremely artificial affair, 



Olga Nethersole. 231 

with hardly a character of blood and sinew, 
About all that could be praised were the 
beautiful scenery and the handsome cos- 
tumes. The Princess Beatrix, whom Miss 
Nethersole played, was a purely theatrical 
personage, without any genuinely human 
characteristic on which the actress could 
found a convincing conception, a motiveless 
character of annoying fickleness. "The 
Termagant," however, was valuable in so 
far as it defined Miss Nethersole's sphere 
as a player. It plainly showed that she 
could not act a part that was untrue to 
nature. Apparently she must approach her 
characters from within, and not until she 
feels that the emotions inspired by the action 
are honest can she convey those emotions 
with any convincing sincerity. Her man- 
nerisms seem to result when she tries to 
impress on her audieuce a mental state that 
does not logically exist. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



LILLIAN LAWRENCE. 



On May 3, 1897, Lillian Lawrence made 
her first appearance as the leading lady of 
the Castle Square Company of Boston. She 
was almost unknown in that city, her only 
previous recent visit there having been made 
in 1896, when she was playing Mrs. Bulford 
in the sensational melodrama, "The Great 
Diamond Robbery." It did not take long, 
however, for Miss Lawrence to establish her- 
self as a prime favourite with the patrons of 
the Boston house, and to-day her personal 
following in that city is something to marvel 
at. Miss Lawrence, barring a slight ten- 
dency toward monotony in her methods of 
dramatic expression, is an ideal actress for 
232 




LILLIAN LAWRENCE 



Lillian Lawrence. 233 

the stock company whose rule it is to change 
its bill every week. She seems to have an 
infinite capacity for hard work, and she has 
also the intuitive dramatic sense, without 
which no player can succeed in this hurry- 
skurry and extremely arduous variety of 
theatrical effort. She has considerable ver- 
satility, though she has not in abundance the 
faculty of differentiation. She realises with 
ability two widely different characterisations, 
such as, for example, June in " Blue Jeans " 
and Ann Cruger in "The Charity Ball ; " but 
give her two similar characters, such as Ann 
Cruger and Helen Truman in "The Wife," 
and one finds that she fails thoroughly-to 
individualise them. This is, of course, the 
severest of all tests of a player's art, re- 
sources, and versatility, and it is not a test 
that can be applied with absolute fairness to 
an actress, who, like Miss Lawrence, cannot 
devote any length of time to developing the 
fine points of a character. In acting, as in 



234 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

painting, it is the little lines that make the 
portrait stand out as something apart from 
others of its kind, and it is also the little 
lines that require the deepest study and the 
most careful consideration. 

Primarily, Miss Lawrence is an emotional 
actress of the old school ; her expression of 
sorrow and of passion is accomplished, not 
so much by suggestion, as by actual demon- 
stration. Her pathos in many characters is 
sincere and touching, and even when she 
fails to sound just the right note in the por- 
trayal of grief and pain, her fine quality of 
embodying in her roles those elements of 
womanliness and feminine charm, which are 
so evident in her work, gains even for her 
poorest parts sympathy and interest. One 
would not call Miss Lawrence a great emo- 
tional actress, but in the wide field, whose 
boundaries fall just short of the point where 
the heartrending passions pass from emotion 
into tragedy, she is ably competent, and in 



Lillian Lawrence. 235 

her appeal to persons whose susceptibilities 
have not been deadened by too much theatre- 
going she is extraordinarily powerful. 

In comedy Miss Lawrence has not the 
touch-and-go style that marks the born 
comedienne, but she has intelligence, which 
enables her to present, with commendable 
ease and more than ordinary success, parts 
that are not naturally in her line. As is 
often the case with actors, whose comedy 
is the result of study rather than of inspira- 
tion, Miss Lawrence is on the whole better 
in eccentric comedy roles than she is in those 
only slightly set apart from every-day life. 
This seems strange at first thought, but in 
reality it is a logical consequence and just 
what one might naturally expect. Eccentric 
comedy, in most of its phases, is but a bur- 
lesque on nature, and there is nothing in the 
theatrical line quite so easy as burlesque, 
especially when the burlesquer is assisted 
by a make-up that of itself wins the first 



236 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

encounter with the audience. True comedy, 
on the other hand, approaches more nearly 
to nature than any other form of acting. 
The personages in that variety of the drama 
are like ordinary men and women, and they 
do things that the average human being might 
reasonably be expected to do under similar 
circumstances. They have experiences that 
the average audience understands, and the 
actor's expression of the emotions caused 
by these experiences must be lifelike and 
genuine to escape critical condemnation. 
There is no higher form of dramatic art 
than first-class comedy acting. 

Lillian Lawrence was born in Alexandria, 
Virginia, in the middle sixties. When she 
was two years old her parents moved to San 
Francisco, and there Miss Lawrence passed 
her girlhood. When she was in the gram- 
mar school, Charles E. Lacke, manager of 
Bush Street Theatre in San Francisco, 
chose her as one of thirty-two children to 



Lillian Lawrence. 237 

take part in a living chess spectacle at his 
playhouse, and thus her theatrical career 
began, when she was thirteen years old, as 
the Queen's Knight in the chess game in the 
operetta, "The Royal Middy." Miss Law- 
rence's parents were opposed to her going 
on the stage, but when they perceived that 
her heart was set on it, they relented. She 
remained with " The Royal Middy " after it 
was transferred to the California Theatre, 
and for three seasons she sang in light opera 
at that house in the company of which Emily 
Melleville was the prima donna. Then Miss 
Lawrence's voice failed, and she took her 
first engagement as an actress in a stock 
company in Oakland, California, where she 
remained for two years. At the end of that 
time she retired from the stage for two years, 
but resumed acting when she was twenty 
years old as a member of a small dramatic 
company that toured California. One of the 
characters Miss Lawrence played at this time 



238 Famous Actresses of the Day. 



was Sister Genevieve in " The Two Or- 
phans." Next she was with the Cordway 
Stock Company, which appeared principally 
in San Diego, California, and Portland, Ore- 
gon, presenting each week a change of bill. 
Miss Lawrence did not come East until 
1892. Three days after her arrival in New 
York she was engaged to play Marie Louise 
to Hortense Rhea's Josephine. She acted 
with a Dayton, Ohio, stock company during 
the next summer, and in the fall she joined 
the Kate Claxton company, appearing as 
Henrietta in "The Two Orphans." She 
returned to the Dayton company for the 
following summer, and that winter saw her 
filling special engagements in New York in 
" Lady Gladys," at the Madison Square 
Theatre with Minnie Seligman, and in " Mrs. 
Dascott," at the Fifth Avenue with Kath- 
erine Clemmons. After " Mrs. Dascott," 
which was a failure, Miss Lawrence was 
for a short time with "In Old Kentucky," 



Lillian Lawrence. 239 

and she finished the season in Carrie Tur- 
ner's company, which was giving " The Crust 
of Society." That summer she was a mem- 
ber of the National Theatre Stock Company 
of Washington, and at the beginning of the 
regular season she came under the manage- 
ment of Charles Frohman, acting in " Men 
and Women." She was reengaged for the 
National Theatre Stock Company the next 
summer, and the following season found her 
playing Shakespearian roles with Thomas 
W. Keene. The season before she came to 
the Castle Square Company of Boston she 
was with "The Bachelor's Baby" and "The 
Great Diamond Robbery," in addition to a 
short engagement at the Girard Avenue 
Theatre in Philadelphia. 

During her stay of two years and a half at 
the Castle Square Theatre Miss Lawrence 
has appeared in over seventy-five different 
characters. A complete list of the roles 
that she played at this house up to the 



240 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

beginning of the last summer season fol- 
lows : 

Helen Truman, "The Wife;" Jo, "The 
Lottery of Love;" Lilian, "The Banker's 
Daughter ; " Rosa Leigh, " Rosedale ; " Mrs. 
Page, " Alabama ; " Esther Eccles, " Caste ; " 
Margaret Knowlton, " The Lost Paradise ; " 
Rose Mumpleford, " Confusion ; " Georgia 
Gwynne, "The New South;" Bella, "School;" 
Mabel Renfrew, " Pique ; " Bessie Barton, 
" Woman against Woman ; " Nina Ralston, 
"Jim the Penman;" Minna, "Little Lord 
Fauntleroy ; " Clairette Monteith, " A Fair 
Rebel ; " Mrs. Horton, " Doctor Bill ; " 
Trilby O'Farrall, "Trilby;" Ann Cruger, 
"The Charity Ball;" Cicily Blaine, "The 
Galley Slave;" Mary Brandon, "My Part- 
ner ; " Agnes Rodman, " Men and Women ; " 
Leila Caprices, " A Social Highwayman ; " 
Lady Noeline, "The Amazons;" Gertrude 
Ellin gham, " Shenandoah ; " Mrs. Seabrookes, 
"Captain Swift;" Margaret Marrable, "The 



Lillian Lawrence. 241 

Fatal Card ; " Kitty Verdun, " Charley's 
Aunt;" Rosa Dartle, "Little Em'ly ; " Val- 
entine de Mornay, " A Celebrated Case ; " 
Hazel Kirke, " Hazel Kirke ; " Kate Vernon, 
" In Mizzoura ; " Countess Zicka, " Diplo- 
macy ; " Princess Flavia, "The Prisoner of 
Zenda ; " Mary Melrose, " Our Boys ; " Flor- 
ence Winthrop, " Americans Abroad ; " Con- 
stance, " Young Mrs. Winthrop ; " Agatha 
Posket, " The Magistrate ; " Alice Greer, 
"The Ensign i" Dora, " Christopher Jr. ; " 
Rachel McCreery, " Held by the Enemy ; " 
Lady Isabel, "East Lynne;" June, "Blue 
Jeans;" Elizabeth Linley, "Sheridan, or the 
Maid of Bath;" Niobe, "Niobe;" Julie De 
Varion, " An Enemy to the King ; " Fifi 
Oritanski, " All the Comforts of Home ; " 
Bess Marks, " The Lights o' London ; " 
Lydia Ransome, " A Southern Romance ; " 
Suzzanne, " A Scrap of Paper ; " Edith Gar- 
land, " Across the Potomac ; " Armande 
Chandoce, " Led Astray ; " Carrie, " The 



242 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Guv'nor;" Marion Paoli, "Mr. Barnes of 
New York;" Marguerite Otto, "Friends;" 
Mrs. Bulford, "The Great Diamond Rob- 
bery ; " Sophie Hackett, " Brother John ; " 
Roxane, "Cyrano de Bergerac;" Mrs. Gil- 
bert Brandon, " The Solicitor ; " Fanny Ten 
Eyck, " Divorce ; " Martha Custis, " Col. 
George of Mt. Vernon ; " May Blossom, 
"May Blossom;" Anne of Austria, "The 
Three Musketeers ; " Ilda Barosky, " Dark- 
est Russia ; " Fanny Hadden, " Captain Let- 
tarblair ; " Queena Montrose and Mile. Rene, 
"Queena;" Rose Woodmere, "The Prodi- 
gal Daughter;" Kate Kennion, "The Girl 
I Left Behind Me;" Lady Hardy, "The 
Idler ; " Alice Ainsley, " Cumberland, '61 ;■" 
Ruth, "A Temperance Town;" Bethel 
Grant, "Just a Day Dream." 







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BLANCHE BATES 



CHAPTER XXII. 

BLANCHE BATES. 

Blanche Bates was the histrionic sensa- 
tion of last season, and by her phenomenal 
success in "The Great Ruby," when that 
melodrama was produced at Daly's Theatre 
on February 9, 1899, and a month later by 
her remarkable acting of Miladi in Sidney 
Grundy's version of " The Three Musket- 
eers," which was produced in Montreal on 
March 6th, with James O'Neill as D'Arta- 
gnan, she arose from comparative obscurity to 
a position of prominence on the American 
stage. 

She was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1873, 
and was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. M. 
Bates, widely popular as leading man and 
243 



244 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

woman on the Pacific Coast and in Australia. 
At the time of her birth her father was 
manager of the beautiful Oro Fino Theatre 
in Portland, and also leading man in the 
company. Three years later he left Port- 
land and went to San Francisco, where he 
lived the rest of his life. 

Miss Bates's parents did not intend that 
she should be an actress. She was educated 
in the same way as are thousands of girls 
whose existence is to be passed in the usual 
walks of life, and her going on the stage 
was purely accidental. An old friend of her 
mother, L. R. Stockwell, manager of Stock- 
well's Theatre in San Francisco, now known 
as the Columbia, had a' benefit, and to please 
him Miss Bates took a part in a one-act play 
by Brander Matthews, called " This Picture 
and That." This taste of life behind the 
footlights only whetted her appetite for 
more, and, after acting for a short time in 
T. Daniel Frawley's stock company in San 



Blanche Bates. 245 

Francisco, she went to New York, where, 
on the recommendation of Mr. Frawley, who 
was also a member of the company, she was 
engaged by James Neill for the Giffen and 
Neill company. She was with that organisa- 
tion for about twenty-five weeks, receiving 
a salary of thirty-five dollars a week, and 
appearing in Denver, Salt Lake City, and 
Portland. Then Mr. Frawley bought out 
the interests of Giffen and Neill, and Miss 
Bates continued with him during his San 
Francisco run, being in May, 1895, advanced 
to the leading comedy roles. 

Her first great success was Mrs. Hillary 
in " The Senator," a part that she acted with 
great vivacity, although she was handicapped 
by her youth, which prevented her from 
looking the character. She assumed the 
comedy leads in all the successful Daly 
plays, such as "The Last Word," "The 
Railroad of Love," " 7-20-8," " Nancy & Co.," 
"The Great Unknown," "The International 



246 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Match," and " Transit of Leo," and also ap- 
peared in " Sweet Lavender " and " Captain 
Swift." Her first emotional part was Phyllis 
in " The Charity Ball," and it was followed 
with leading roles in "The Wife," "In Spite 
of All," "The Dancing Girl," "An Enemy 
of the King," and "A Doll's House." Her 
Nora was a great triumph, and attracted wide 
attention, for " A Doll's House " was the 
first Ibsen play to be presented on the Pacific 
Coast. 

In January, 1898, Miss Bates came under 
Augustin Daly's management, and played 
Shakespearian characters in his company 
until the end of the season, when she was 
loaned to Mr. Frawley, with whom she starred 
throughout the West. She returned to Mr. 
Daly to create in this country the character 
of the Countess Mirtza in "The Great 
Ruby," her first heavy part. She appeared 
in the rdle but twice, and her unexpected 
withdrawal from the Daly company gave rise 



Blanche Bates. 247 

to any amount of gossip. Her success with 
James O'Neill followed. During the early 
part of last summer she was again with Mr. 
Frawley, this time appearing with his stock 
company in Washington. Regarding her 
work in "The Great Ruby," Norman Hap- 
good wrote : " Blanche Bates, by moderate, 
clear, and vivid acting, made the countess 
thief a fascinating person. This actress will 
be watched with interest in her New York 
career." Franklyn Fyles said : "A new one, 
Blanche Bates, distinguished herself by 
marked cleverness in the r61e of an adven- 
turess. She is a handsome and accomplished 
actress." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ELSIE DEWOLFE. 

When Mrs. James Brown Potter became 
a professional actress, thus resigning the 
leadership in New York amateur theatricals, 
which she had held for many years, the per- 
son that quietly slipped into the position was 
Elsie Anderson DeWolfe. Miss DeWolfe's 
career as an amateur actress was unusual 
enough to be worth recording. Her first 
important appearance was in 1885 at Charles 
Wyndham's Criterion Theatre in London, 
when she acted in Douglas Jerrold's comedy, 
"The White Milliner." The performance 
was for the benefit of some church charity, 
and the Prince and Princess of Wales were 
248 



— 




ELSIE DE WOLFE 



Elsie De Wolfe. 249 

among those present. The play was repeated 
a little later for the benefit of the wives of 
the soldiers killed in the Soudan. On her 
return home to New York from her London 
visit Miss DeWolfe acted at Mrs. Eggleston's 
residence in Washington Square, in a play 
called "The Loan of a Lover." She then 
appeared at the University Club Theatre in 
a drama entitled "Fete de la St. Martin." 
Even in those days, when any idea of the 
professional stage would have seemed the 
height of absurdity, Miss DeWolfe was a 
diligent student of the art of acting, and 
conscientious to a surprising degree in the 
preparation of her characters. She was 
thoroughly at home on the stage, and she 
had repose, a most uncommon quality among 
amateur actors. 

In the spring of 1886 Miss DeWolfe made 
a great hit as Lady Clara Seymore in S. 
Theyre Smith's one-act play, "A Cup of 
Tea," which was given at the University 



250 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Club Theatre under the auspices of the 
Amateur Comedy Club. Her "fall" in this 
piece was a nine days' wonder in the fashion- 
able world. In the autumn of the same year 
she again played Lady Clara, this time at the 
opening of the Tuxedo Club Theatre. Next 
she appeared as Maud Ashley in a dull play 
called " Sunshine." This performance was 
given by the Amateur Comedy Club in the 
assembly-rooms of the Metropolitan Opera 
House. A few weeks later, during car- 
nival week at Tuxedo, Miss DeWolfe acted 
Lady Gwendoline Bloomfield in Sir Charles 
Young's "Drifted Apart" and Helen in 
the comedy scenes from Sheridan Knowles's 
drama, "The Hunchback." These plays 
were afterward repeated in New York. Lady 
Gwendoline was a type of the cold, heart- 
less woman of society. As the play pro- 
gressed, Lady Gwendoline's womanly nature 
was developed, and the role became one re- 
quiring considerable emotional power. Miss 



Elsie De Wolfe. 251 

DeWolfe was very good in the early scenes, 
but naturally enough she was hardly equal to 
realising the full possibilities of the last half 
of the play. Her performance of Helen was 
much better, and the coquetry and archness 
of the character were displayed with fine 
effect. She acted Helen eight times that 
winter, and each time showed great improve- 
ment, with the result that as an amateur 
actress she was without an equal, and judged 
by the professional standard she ranked only 
a trifle beneath the general average. Miss 
DeWolfe' s connection with amateur theat- 
ricals continued until she became a pro- 
fessional actress in 1891, and her most 
successful parts were Mrs. Prettifet in " The 
Mousetrap," Rosina Vokes's famous char- 
acter in Mrs. Charles A. Doremus's bright 
comedietta, "The Circus Rider," Lady Teazle 
in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's "The School 
for Scandal," and the leading role in " Con- 
trasts," an adaptation by Miss Elizabeth Mar- 



252 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

bury of "Je dine chez ma mere." In this 
last drama, which was one of the most elabo- 
rate amateur productions ever made in New 
York, Miss DeWolfe had the advantage of 
Mr. David Belasco's instruction. She had 
also during her visits abroad constantly 
studied under leading dramatic artists, among 
them Mile. Bartet, Herman Vezin, and Mile, 
Marie Laurent. 

Elsie DeWolfe was the daughter of the 
late Dr. Stephen DeWolfe, of New York, and 
was born in New York City on December 
20, 1865. Her father died in 1890, and after 
his estate had been settled Miss DeWolfe 
found that she would be obliged to earn a 
livelihood. Her tastes and her training led 
her to choose the stage, and she succeeded 
in getting an engagement with Charles 
Frohman, under whose management she has 
remained most of the time since. Her pro- 
fessional debut was made at Proctor's The- 
atre, New York, on October 5, 1891, in 



Elsie De Wolfe. 253 

Victorien Sardou' s " Thermidor," in which 
she assumed the leading emotional r61e, 
Fabienne Lecoulteur. She prepared herself 
with great care for the part, going abroad 
and studying it in French under the direc- 
tion of Sardou himself and with the aid 
of her former tutor, Mile. Bartet, who cre- 
ated the character at the stormy production 
of the play in Paris. Under Mile. Bartet' s 
coaching, Miss DeWolfe gained wonderfully 
in emotional power. When the play was 
produced in New York, however, Miss 
DeWolfe was not a success, though later 
she retrieved herself, and in Boston achieved 
a genuine triumph. She has always ascribed 
her New York failure largely to her igno- 
rance of the art of making-up. " I looked a 
perfect fright on the first night," she said, 
" more like a circus clown than a woman, and 
even my own friends did not recognise me 
when I came on the stage." 

While working with Sardou Miss DeWolfe 



254 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

became a great admirer of the French drama- 
tist, regarding whom she said : 

"To me he is little short of a demigod. 
He seems to know everything. You hunt 
up a subject and go to him with it. He 
knows all, and more than you can tell him. 
His erudition is perfectly appalling, and yet 
he is so simple, and his life is so quiet and 
so beautiful. 

" I attended all the rehearsals of « Thermi- 
dor ' at the Comedie Francaise," she con- 
tinued, "the first outsider ever accorded 
such a privilege, and from that time until 
I came back, to make my own debut, I 
literally sat in Sardou's pocket, that is, 
when I was not vibrating between him and 
Mile. Bartet. Yes, I was there in Sar- 
dou's box, the Saturday night the play was 
produced, and with a party of friends on 
that dreadful second. night, when Lissagaray 
led the mob and flung things at Coquelin, 
and Sardou sat quietly in his box and smiled 



Elsie De Wolfe. 255 

at the tumult. Was I frightened ? Indeed, 
and indeed, I was. I never expected to get 
out alive ; I knew we should be stoned to 
death. 

"Sardou," Miss DeWolfe added, "is the 
best hated man in France, and he loves it ! 
He often says that, if the day comes that 
sees his countrymen own that he has pro- 
duced anything great, he shall know that he 
has reached the end of his career." 

After her appearance in " Thermidor," 
Miss DeWolfe spent two seasons on the road, 
acting leading parts in " Joseph," " Judge," 
and "The Four -in-Hand." Returning to 
New York she played at the American 
Theatre in " Sister Mary," her character 
being Rose Reade. Then she was enrolled 
as a member of the Empire Theatre Com- 
pany of New York. She assumed with dis- 
tinction such parts as Lady Kate Ffennel in 
"The Bauble Shop," with the John Drew 
Company, Lady Charley Wishanger in " The 



256 Famous Actresses of the Day. 



Masqueraders," Mrs. Wanklyn in "John-a- 
Dreams," Mrs. Glib in " Christopher Jr.," 
Mrs. Mellin Dale in "A Man in Love," 
Leah da Costa in "A Woman's Reason," 
and Mrs. Dudley Chumleigh in " Marriage." 
Last season Miss DeWolfe was a promi- 
nent member of the famous cast that pre- 
sented Henri Lavedan's " Catherine " in this 
country. Her Helene was in some respects 
the most remarkable characterisation in the 
play. The role itself was one of much diffi- 
culty, combining as it did the fiercest passion 
and the refinement of a woman of gentle 
birth and social position. Miss DeWolfe 
revealed a depth of emotion heretofore un- 
suspected in her, and her appeal to men was 
tremendous. Her acting was realistic in the 
extreme, quiet and subdued, marvellously 
simple, yet marvellously complex in the 
motives suggested. Her audacious appeal 
to the man she loved thrilled one and set 
the nerves to tingling as if from an electric 



Elsie De Wolfe. 257 

shock. A magnificent creature, this Helene, 
a woman to serve twice seven years for, even 
as Jacob served for Rachel ! 

Miss DeWolfe's future is surely one of 
roseate hue. Her talent is unquestionably 
great, and her position on the American 
stage is sufficiently advanced to give her 
abilities excellent scope. Moreover, she has, 
in addition to a thorough stage training, the 
great advantage of having known society life 
at first hand. Intelligent, ambitious, and 
a hard worker; personally magnetic and 
physically attractive ; her face constantly 
charming with its wealth of varying expres- 
sion, and her voice equally fascinating with 
its melody and delicate modulations, she 
should find in the modern realistic drama 
a field in which to prosper and to win artistic 
triumphs. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

ROSE COGHLAN. 

Rose Coghlan is an actress whom the 
critics praise mightily, but whom the public, 
outside of New York City, where she has a 
large personal following, who bear in mind 
her triumphs with Lester Wallack, has not 
appreciated at her full worth. Indeed, the 
public really knows very little about her, 
and this notwithstanding the fact that she 
has won approbation time and time again, 
— nay more, has compelled admiration in 
roles with which no actress in the country, 
unless it be Agnes Booth, of whom, for 
some reason or other, she always reminds 
me, could have begun to make the impres- 
sion that Miss Coghlan did. Miss Coghlan 
258 



^ 



Rose Coghlan. 259 

has been neglected, because, while she has as 
an actress moved the public emotionally and 
intellectually, she has never succeeded in 
touching the public's heart with a sense of 
her personal charm, has never succeeded in 
winning the public's love, if I may express 
it in that way. Consequently, she has never 
created in the public mind a tremendous 
desire to see her on the stage regardless 
of the play in which she appears. Maude 
Adams and Julia Marlowe are the two per- 
sons that have inspired to the greatest degree 
just such personal idolatry, yet neither of 
them can approach Rose Coghlan in genuine 
tragic force ; neither of them, for instance, 
can portray as she can the woman who loves 
mightily, hates bitterly, and, like a wild beast 
at bay, fights to the last ditch. But they 
have in superabundance that little gift of 
individuality, which means so much to the 
player, personal magnetism. Every actor 
must have an appreciable amount of this 



260 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

most desirable quality to succeed at all ; a 
few — and they are fortunate beings, born 
with silver spoons in their mouths — have 
far more than their share, and they prosper 
accordingly. 

Rose Coghlan, magnificent dramatic artist 
though she is, is surely lacking somewhat in 
personal magnetism. She has been acting 
prominent parts in conspicuous productions 
in this country continuously for over twenty 
years ; she has always shown a fine average 
ability, and some things she has done extraor- 
dinarily well ; she is a woman of superb 
stage presence, and she is at that age when 
she should be at the very height of her 
power in characters that call for the display 
of the deeper and the gloomier emotions. 
Yet where do we find her? Playing an 
adventuress in an unusually lurid and sen- 
sational melodrama, and even occasionally 
appearing in vaudeville. Do not misunder- 
stand me. I am not blaming Miss Coghlan ; 



Rose Coghlan. 261 

I am simply outlining a condition and trying 
to give an explanation. Miss Coghlan prob- 
ably hates being in melodrama very much 
more than we hate to see her there. If any 
one is to be blamed, it is the public that has 
failed to appreciate an artist. Or, better 
still, if you must blame some one or some- 
thing, and do not think it profitable nor wise 
to censure a public that, after all, only fol- 
lows its instincts, why, blame nature. At 
any rate she can't answer back ! 

Rose Coghlan was born in Peterborough, 
England, in 1853, and came from a promi- 
nent Irish family. Her father was Francis 
Coghlan, the founder of Coghlan' s Continen- 
tal Dispatch, the publisher of Coghlan' s Con- 
tinental Guides, and the friend of Charles 
Dickens, Charles Reade, and other literary 
men of his time. The first wife of Rose's 
brother Charles was an actress. She got 
Charles, who was a lawyer when he married, 
on the stage, and later she did the same 



262 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

thing for Rose. Rose made her professional 
debut in Greenwich, Scotland, as one of the 
witches in " Macbeth." Soon after she had a 
chance to play in London, and made quite a hit 
as Tilly Price in a dramatisation of Dickens's 
"Nicholas Nickleby," at the Court Theatre, 
where she was also successful in various 
boys' parts. Engagements with Adelaide 
Neilson and John L. Toole followed, and 
then in 1871 E. A. Sothern brought her to 
this country to appear in a dramatisation 
of Wilkie Collins's novel "The Woman in 
White." The management collapsed, and 
Miss Coghlan sought refuge with Lydia 
Thompson's famous blonde burlesquers. She 
was then at Wallack's Theatre one season, 
and in 1873 returned to England, playing for 
a short time with Charles Mathews in " The 
Liar." Miss Coghlan's next venture was in 
the provinces, being engaged for utility roles 
by Mr. Loveday, of the Theatre Royal, 
Cheltenham. Genevieve Roberts was the 



Rose Coghlan. 263 

leading lady of the company. She was a good 
actress, but a woman of fiery temper. During 
a " Macbeth " rehearsal she quarrelled with 
Albert Sydney, the stage manager, and threw 
up her engagement. Miss Coghlan was 
rushed in at short notice to play Lady Mac- 
beth, and made such a hit that she was 
permanently engaged for leading business. 
How this promising engagement came to an 
abrupt termination is thus related by Miss 
Coghlan : 

" The amount of hard work that I had to 
do was simply astonishing. I would come 
home at night, light my candle in the hall- 
way below, go to my room, and study over 
a part until I could no longer see. Then 
when my brain seemed to give out and every 
letter and character in the book seemed like 
tiny specks, a multitudinous number, I would 
set my teapot over the flame and drink the 
tea as warm or hot as I could get it. Then 
I would begin to work and worry over my 



264 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

gowns, and so with studying, cutting, and 
fitting, it was often daylight before I was able 
to take a much needed rest. The work was 
extremely hard, and I often felt discouraged, 
and decided to give it up. 

" Eventually I did make a change, and 
I don't believe any one will blame me for 
it when they learn how it came about. Mr. 
Barry Sullivan was at that time playing in 
London, and negotiations had been going on 
for some time to have him appear with us at 
Cheltenham for a week's engagement. After 
Mr. Loveday completed the arrangements, a 
* call ' was posted for a week of Shakespeare. 
I had never seen any of these plays, and 
although I had what we term a quick mem- 
ory, I knew I would never be able to commit 
Shakespeare's lines on such a short notice. 
I sent for Mr. Loveday, and told him that it 
would be impossible for me to appear with 
Mr. Sullivan, and that he would have to get 
some one to take my place. He argued with 



Rose Cogklan. 265 

me until I consented to try. That night I 
did not go to bed at all, but, try as I would, 
I could not memorise the lines of Portia. 
My brain was tired out and I knew I must 
have a rest. But could I tell Mr. Loveday ? 
And the company, when they heard of it, 
wouldn't they laugh at and make fun of me? 
I will run away, I said, and so I did. 

" Within a few miles of Cheltenham there 
was an old friend of my mother's, and fre- 
quently she begged me to visit her, but my 
work made this impossible. In my despair 
I decided to go to her, and hurriedly packing 
my trunk, I engaged a carriage, and before 
the sun sank in the west on that bright Sab- 
bath day I was enjoying all the comforts of 
home." 

Miss Coghlan did play Shakespeare with 
Barry Sullivan later, however, after she had 
finished out the season with Mr. John Hare. 
Besides other characters, with Sullivan she 
acted Viola in " Twelfth Night " over two 



266 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

hundred times. She was in the cast that 
first played "East Lynne" at St. James's 
Theatre, London, and after that was the 
Lady Manden in Herman Meri vale's great 
success, "All for Her," which ran for four 
hundred nights at the same theatre. 

In 1877 Miss Coghlan again became a 
member of Lester Wallack's New York 
company, this time as leading lady. Her 
first role was Clarisse Harlowe in Dion 
Boucicault's stupid play of the same name. 
She remained with Wallack nine years, with 
the exception of a short engagement in San 
Francisco and another at Booth's Theatre, 
New York, in a Boucicault play called " The 
Rescue." Miss Coghlan made her most 
brilliant success at Wallack's as Stephanie 
in Merivale's " Forget-Me-Not," forestalling 
accidentally Genevieve Ward, who expected 
to introduce this play into this country. 

"You see," said Miss Coghlan, "there 
was a delightful misreading of Miss Ward's 



Rose Coghlan. 267 

contract with the author, and, under a mis- 
conception, Mr. Merivale sold the New York 
rights to Theodore Morse, of Wallack's, so 
that when Genevieve Ward arrived at quar- 
antine to tour this country, she had the 
pleasure of reading, while detained there, 
the criticisms on my performance of the 
part that was her own, — I had played it 
the night before, and made the hit of my 
life. Of course she easily got an injunction, 
but I had played it ; great part, too, though 
an adventuress never gets the full sympathy 
of the audience, however clever she is." 

Miss Coghlan once remarked that of all 
the characters that she has ever assumed 
she likes best of all Rosalind in "As You 
Like It ; " next Peg Woffington, in which, by 
the way, she was very fine, and after that 
Stephanie. 

After " Forget-Me-Not " had been ruled 
out at Wallack's, Miss Coghlan originated 
the leading role in " La Belle Russe," an 



268 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

imitation of the Merivale play. Notable 
successes, such as "The World," "A Scrap 
of Paper," "The Silver King," "The Lyons 
Mail," and " Moths," followed, as well as 
brilliant revivals of the old comedies. Her 
connection with the theatre ended in 1886, 
but when Wallack's closed its doors on May 
5, 1888, the last performance being "The 
School for Scandal," Miss Coghlan was es- 
pecially engaged for Lady Teazle. 

Miss Coghlan appeared with the Union 
Square Theatre Company in 1887, acting 
Lady Gay Spanker, Peg Woffington, Rosa- 
lind, and Zicka in " Diplomacy," a remark- 
able performance. She was the Player 
Queen in the star cast of " Hamlet," which 
was produced in New York, May 21, 1888, 
in honour of Lester Wallack's retirement from 
the stage. That fall Miss Coghlan started 
out as a star, her first play being her brother 
Charles's "Jocelyn." Productions of "Prin- 
cess Olga " and " The Idol of the Hour " 



Rose Coghlan. 269 

followed. Then she tried her hand, without 
much success, at farcical comedy, from which 
she emerged, in 1894, with the Oscar Wilde 
sensation, " A Woman of No Importance." 
The next year she starred in " Princess Wa- 
lanoff," " Diplomacy," and " Forget-Me-Not." 
Since that time Miss Coghlan has drifted. 
Yet she is an actress of the rarest accom- 
plishments, a type of player of which there 
are but few, and she must soon stand forth 
from her comparative obscurity. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

MARGARET ANGLIN. 

Margaret Anglin had been on the stage 
but four years when she was engaged at the 
beginning of last season to play Roxane in 
Richard Mansfield's production of " Cyrano 
de Bergerac." This character, which she 
acted with unusual artistic taste, brought her 
prominently before the public. Roxane is 
by no means a great part. She is com- 
pletely overbalanced by Cyrano, a fact Miss 
Anglin fully appreciated. She never un- 
duly forced herself into the picture ; she 
invested the role with much charm and fas- 
cination, and she was dainty, coquettish, and 
lovely to the eye. Her best moment came 
with her declaration of love for Cyrano in 
270 



Margare t A nglin. 271 

the last act, when her pathos and sincerity 
were very touching. 

Miss Anglin is a Canadian girl. She was 
born in Ottawa in 1876, while her father 
was Speaker of the House of Commons. 
In this connection a peculiar interest attaches 
itself to Miss Anglin's birth, for that im- 
portant event in her life occurred in the 
Speaker's Chamber of the House of Parlia- 
ment. Her youth was passed in a French 
convent school, and at the age of seventeen 
she decided to study for the stage. She 
entered Nelson Wheatcroft's school in New 
York, and while there appeared in two plays, 
which were given at matinee performances 
by the students. Her professional debut 
was made in the fall of 1894, at the Academy 
of Music in New York, in a small part in 
" Shenandoah," then under Charles Froh- 
man's management. The next season was 
spent on the road with a company of barn- 
stormers. The repertory was varied, as 






272 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

well as the conditions under which the actors 
laboured, and Miss Anglin declared that she 
gained enough stock work experience in that 
one engagement to last her a lifetime. 

The season of 1896-97 found Miss An- 
glin a member of James O'Neill's company, 
with which she played Ophelia in " Hamlet," 
Virginia in "Virginius," Julie de Mortemar 
in "Richelieu," and Mercedes in "Monte 
Cristo." When the next season opened 
she acted in " Lord Chumley " with E. H. 
Sothern, being given the part of Meg, 
the " slavey," which was originated by Etta 
Hawkins. Then she organised a company 
of her own and played throughout the lower 
provinces of Canada. In her repertory were 
"As You Like It," in which, of course, she 
was the Rosalind, " Christopher Jr.," and 
"The Mysterious Mr. Bugle." Miss Anglin 
remained with Mr. Mansfield until March, 
1899, when she joined James O'Neill and ap- 
peared in his production of "The Musketeers." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

FAY DAVIS. 

Fay Davis is an American actress who 
has never acted in America. All her theat- 
rical successes have been accomplished in 
England, where for a number of seasons she 
has been one of the features of the com- 
panies of Charles Wyndham and George 
Alexander. In this country we know her 
only as a very beautiful girl, tall, slender, and 
graceful, and as an unusually accomplished 
reader. Miss Davis was born in Houlton, 
Me., in December, 1869. Her parents took 
her to Boston when she was a little girl, and 
she grew up in that city, graduating from 
the Winthrop School. She attended several 
schools of oratory in Boston, but they did not 
273 



274 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

seem to give her exactly what she wanted, 
so she placed herself under the tutelage of 
Leland T. Powers, the monologue enter- 
tainer, and she was also coached by Prof. 
J. J. Hayes, of Harvard University. For 
several seasons Miss Davis was prominent 
in lyceum course entertainments throughout 
the country, and she was also connected 
with several amateur theatrical organisations 
in Boston. But during her residence in that 
city apparently no thought of the profes- 
sional stage ever entered her mind. 

In May, 1895, Miss Davis and her sister, 
Mrs. F. M. Linnell, of Boston, went to Lon- 
don for a visit. One afternoon, in the studio 
of Felix Moscheles, she was invited to en- 
tertain the artist's friends. She gave two 
or three selections, and her success was 
immediate. Usually when a recitation is 
announced the crowd speedily thins. But 
when Miss Davis recited, persons crowded 
in the room, blocked up the doors, and even 



Fay Davis. 275 

stood 01 the chairs. They asked, " Who is 
she ? " When they were told that she was 
an American reciter, they said, " Surely she 
is an actress, or should be one." She was 
asked to recite in many places. Mrs. Ron- 
alds, Madame Nordica, and Mrs. Kendall 
did much to advance her interests, and Felix 
Moscheles gave another brilliant reception 
in her honour. Then when Henry Lorraine, . 
the veteran English actor, was given a bene- 
fit at the Criterion, Charles Wyndham's 
theatre, Miss Davis was asked to read. 

" I was sitting in the balcony," said Mrs. 
Linn ell, in telling the story, "and Mr. 
Wyndham was sitting beside me. We had 
met him before, but he had never heard 
Fay recite. While she was speaking, he 
turned to me, and said, < Would your sister 
go on the stage?' I said I did not know, 
but that I had advised her to do so. He 
said, <If she will, I want her. I am going 
down to see her now.' This he did. He 



276 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

had a new play, in which he wanted her to 
take the part of an American girl. She 
said she would read over the part and de- 
cide. He sent her the manuscript of 'A 
Squire of Dames.' The part was that of 
Zoe Nuggetson, a Western girl. The part 
was written on the M'liss type, a rather 
rough exaggeration. After Fay had read it 
over, she sent the play back, and told Mr. 
Wyndham she couldn't do it. She said she 
had never seen any such girl, nor known of 
one, and she couldn't play the part. Upon 
that he said, 'Well, write the part over to 
suit yourself, then, and play it as you have 
a mind to.' This she eventually did, and 
achieved a remarkable success." 

Miss Davis appeared as Zoe in November, 
1895, and played the character all that 
season. At the close of the theatrical year 
she went to the Isle of Wight for a rest, 
and while there she was sent for by George 
Alexander, to take the role of Madame de 



Fay Davis, 277 

Mauban in "The Prisoner of Zenda." She 
appeared in that play for two months. Then 
she acted Celia in Mr. Alexander's produc- 
tion of "As You Like It," and after that 
came her great success as Fay Zuliana in 
" The Princess and the Butterfly." During 
the summer of 1897 she toured the prov- 
inces, playing the Princess Flavia in "The 
Prisoner of Zenda " and Rosalind in " As 
You Like It." On her return to London 
she created the character of Monica in 
"The Tree of Knowledge," and she also 
made a great hit as Dulcie Larondie in a 
revival of "The Masqueraders." Regard- 
ing this last performance, the London Mail 
said : 

"When originally produced at the St. 
James's Theatre, there was one thrilling mo- 
ment in the piece that dwarfed all others, 
— the game at cards. Now there are two, 
for Miss Fay Davis electrified the audience 
at the Grand Theatre by her delivery of the 



278 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

tempestuous tirade against marriage and all 
its works. To those who know Miss Davis 
only as the sweet and sympathetic heroine, 
the passion and frenzy of this outbreak of 
a distraught and broken-hearted woman will 
come as a revelation. The very heart-strings 
of Dulcie Larondie seemed to snap, and the 
discord of overwrought anguish rang in our 
ears and impressed itself upon our brains. 
It was no theatrical tour-de-force ; it was 
something immeasurably greater — a glimpse 
into the heart and mind of a real, living 
woman, in whom every emotion of mater- 
nity, of pride, of everything which makes up 
life, was agonised beyond endurance. By 
no trick or mere technical skill did Miss 
Fay Davis impel our sympathy — but by 
vivid truth and irresistible reality. She 
seemed to be swept away by the horror of 
it — and we were swept away, too. An ac- 
tress who can play this strenuous scene as 
Miss Davis played it, and who can also give 



Fay Davis. 279 

to us the charm and strange pathos of the 
confession of the wild girl in ' The Princess 
and the Butterfly,' has a range and a versa- 
tility which should carry her anywhere." 

Speaking of her sister's success, Mrs. Lin- 
nell said : " Fay is a very hard worker. She 
studies constantly. For instance, for the part 
of Fay Zuliana, which is that of an Italian 
girl who speaks broken English, she had an 
old Italian woman to teach her. She has 
studied with Genevieve Ward, who herself 
said to me, in speaking of Fay, ' I have lived 
in London for twenty-five years, and I have 
never seen such a success.' " 

Miss Davis's debut in "The Squire of 
Dames " was dramatic in the extreme. Be- 
fore the play began she was practically un- 
known to the critics and the public. When 
the play ended, the theatre was ringing with 
her praises, and the next day she was the 
talk of all London. Zoe Nuggetson was not 
a leading part by any means, but Miss Davis 



* 



280 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

gave it distinction, and made it stand out 
with far more prominence than its actual 
importance demanded. 

" There is one scene in this play which is 
worth seeing for the scene alone," Clement 
Scott wrote. " Mr. Wyndham, the careless 
butterfly man of the water, the bee that 
sucks the honey from every passing flower, 
has made a deep impression on a rich, nat- 
ural, straightforward American girl. After 
flirting and coquetting, the pretty American 
comes straight to the point, and swears she 
will marry no man on earth but this delight- 
ful butterfly, this honey-sucking bee. In 
the scene there is not a trace of vulgarity. 
There is no suggestion of the stage Yankee 
girl about it. It is played to perfection by 
Mr. Wyndham and Miss Fay Davis, who was 
nearly encored for her nature and brilliancy. 
Properly considered, it is a most affecting 
little chapter of nature, and even now Miss 
Fay Davis may let herself go a little more. 



Fay Davis. 281 

She need not be afraid of that throb and 
tremble in the voice. The situation demands 
it, and every tear drawn here is to the credit 
of the general account. The scene in itself 
was a genuine bit of nature, but the acting 
called down the kind of enthusiasm that 
means so much when it is obviously sincere. 
The audience was, in fact, a little spoiled. 
Charles Wyndham, Frank Fento, Miss Fay 
Davis, and a few others had so brought 
back the old Gymnase style of 1864, that 
the lovers of acting began thinking of Rose 
Chere, and Delaport, and Farguell, and come- 
dians of that incomparable style. For style 
is what these plays require." 

Referring to this same scene, the London 
Chronicle said : " Miss Fay Davis sustained 
her share of this excellently written scene 
with exactly the amount of spirit and refine- 
ment that was required to convince the audi- 
ence of the sincerity of Zoe. There was no 
hanging back, neither was the rush forward 



282 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

too great. Excess in either direction might 
have spoiled all. The performance was ad- 
mirably balanced throughout. As Zoe her- 
self would probably have said, it was 'just 
right.'" 

After Miss Davis's appearance in "The 
Prisoner of Zenda," Arthur Warren declared : 
" The change from pure comedy (' The Squire 
of Dames ' ) to romantic melodrama was a 
severe test, but the success of the young 
artist was no less distinct in this instance 
than in the other. Miss Davis is an artist 
who thinks for herself. She has given clear 
proof that to whatever she touches she will 
bring a new light. Her predecessors in the 
De Mauban role had shown us an adven- 
turess who was hard, vindictive, and, not to 
put too fine a point upon it, rather noisy. 
Miss Davis changed all this. In her hands 
Antoinette de Mauban was not an adven- 
turess, but a beautiful, high-bred woman, a 
loving woman who risked all for the sake of 



Fay Davis. 283 

the man she loved, and who saved the king 
in order to save her lover from the crime of 
killing. The womanliness of this De Mauban 
was exquisitely portrayed. There was a rare, 
rich power, too, in the passionate scenes, and 
nothing more touching than her confession 
to the Princess Flavia has been seen on the 
London stage in many a day." 

The London critics called Miss Davis's 
Celia in " As You Like It " " the new Celia." 
Miss Davis had the advantage of having all 
the lines in the part retained, and thus her 
character was not sacrificed for the purpose 
of making a " star " of Rosalind, who, in this 
case, was played by Julia Neilson. George 
Alexander was the Orlando. 

" Miss Fay Davis exercises a charm all her 
own in the character of Celia," remarked the 
London Times. " Usually Celia is eclipsed 
by her more imposing companion, Rosalind. 
There has not for many years been seen so 
arch and graceful and interesting a Celia as 



284 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Miss Fay Davis presents ; her acting is a 
revelation of the potentialities for the char- 
acter which comes upon the habitual playgoer 
as a surprise.' ' 

The critic of the Daily Mail wrote : 
"There must go up one long cry of admi- 
ration for brilliant Miss Fay Davis. Poetry 
was in the heart as well as in the speech of 
her Celia, and, in facial and vocal play, her 
acting was the finest of the afternoon." 

Last season Miss Davis impersonated Juliet 
Gainsborough, in George Alexander's produc- 
tions of John Oliver Hobbes's brilliant com- 
edy, " The Ambassador.' ' 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

ODETTE TYLER. 

Odette Tyler is a charming ingenue, 
who is best remembered by her dainty 
acting of Caroline Mittford in William 
Gillette's stirring drama, " Secret Service." 
Last season, however, after a year's retire- 
ment from the stage, she bloomed forth as 
a Shakespearian heroine, appearing as Des- 
demona in " Othello," Juliet in " Romeo 
and Juliet," and Portia in both "The Mer- 
chant of Venice" and "Julius Caesar." After 
a preliminary run around the country, she 
boldly entered New York and played an 
engagement of several weeks' duration. The 
experiment was not half so disastrous as 
might have been expected, for the ambitious 
285 



286 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

actress was handicapped by a reputation 
that made the public unwilling to accept 
her as anything except a very young and 
rather frivolous girl, as well as a company 
that was as a whole decidedly inadequate, 
and stage settings that showed the wear 
and tear of many years of arduous service. 
While not accorded any overwhelming praise, 
Miss Tyler did win the respectful consid- 
eration of critical writers, and was given 
credit for dramatic ability much in excess 
of what she was generally believed to 
possess. There was pathos in her Desde- 
mona, beauty in her Juliet, and dignity in 
her Portia in "The Merchant of Venice," 
and under the circumstances she had every 
reason to be pleased at the things that were 
said of her. 

Miss Tyler's Caroline Mittford in "Secret 
Service" was a bird of altogether another 
colour. The character was that of a South- 
ern girl not yet out of her teens, a provok- 



Odette Tyler. 287 

ing maiden whose end in life seemed to be 
to get all the fun possible out of the passing 
moment. The fact that the Confederate 
cause was on the wane, and the Federal 
guns were pounding Richmond day and 
night, apparently did not trouble her one 
whit. A defeated South was not half so 
direful a disaster to contemplate as the fact 
that she could not have a new gown to 
wear at a coming party. But there was 
womanliness and courage in this miss, though 
they cropped out only at unexpected 
moments. She teased her boy lover unmer- 
cifully just before he left for the front, 
then cried as if her heart would break after 
he had gone ; and it was her meddling, 
whether intentional or not I am sure I do 
not know, that saved the hero-spy when 
his schemes seemed to be on the point of 
falling like a house of cards about his head. 
A lovable little lady, indeed, as acted by 
Miss Tyler, and such a picture in her big 



288 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

hat with its flowing ribbons ! They said 
that the hat was an anachronism, but it 
was too pretty for any one really to care 
about its date. 

Miss Tyler is a Southerner herself, and 
comes from a family with a magnificent 
army and navy record. She was born in 
Savannah, Georgia, the daughter of General 
Kirkland, a West Pointer, who fought for 
the lost cause. One of her uncles was 
General Hardee, the author of the famous 
Hardee military tactics, and another was 
Admiral Kirkland, who a few years ago 
was presented by the Czar of Russia with 
a ten thousand dollar snuff-box. Bessie 
Kirkland was Miss Tyler's name before 
she went on the stage. She is now mar- 
ried to R. D. MacLean, one of her co- 
stars in her last season's Shakespearian 
venture. Miss Tyler's first professional 
appearance was made in 1884 in " Sieba," 
one of the Kiralfy spectacles, and, although 



Odette Tyler. 289 

she had only a few lines to speak, her beauty 
won for her considerable attention. She 
was next engaged by Daniel Frohman for 
the Madison Square Theatre Company, and 
made her debut at that house in William 
Gillette's "The Private Secretary." At 
the conclusion of this engagement Mr. 
Frohman loaned her to Minnie Maddern, 
who was then starring, and Miss Tyler 
appeared as a French actress in "In Spite 
of All," and created the part of Euridice 
Mole in " Featherbrain," in which she made 
a decided success. Charles Frohman next 
secured her as leading comedienne of the 
Empire Theatre Company, with which she 
appeared as the young widow in love with 
the Congressman from Jersey in " Men and 
Women ; " as Polly in " The Lost Paradise," 
making one of the greatest hits in the play 
when it was produced in Chicago ; and as 
Lucy Hawksmith in " The Girl I Left 
Behind Me." She originated the leading 



290 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

role in "The Gay Parisians," and created 
in this country the title role in "The Coun- 
cillor's Wife," a character made famous in 
England by Mrs. John Woods. Miss Tyler 
also played Gertrude Ellingham in a revival 
of " Shenandoah " by Charles Frohman. She 
appeared in " Secret Service " in all the 
leading cities of this country, and was with 
the company during its successful visit to 
England. 













MARIE BURROUGHS 



CHAPTER XXVIIi. 

MARIE BURROUGHS. 

Marie Burroughs was born in San Jose, 
California, and her name was Lillie Arring- 
ton. When she was seventeen years old, 
she finished her education at the Convent 
of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco, and 
soon after she left school she went to the 
theatre for the first time. The performance 
was Lawrence Barrett in "Yorick's Love," 
and the young girl was immediately smitten 
with a desire to be an actress. That was, 
of course, quite the usual thing, but Miss 
Burroughs happened to have a friend who 
knew Mr. Barrett, and in this way she ob- 
tained an introduction to the actor and an 
opportunity to read before him. 

" I do not think that the poor man wanted 
291 



292 Famous Actresses of the Day. 



to hear me at all," said Miss Burroughs, 
" but he was civil about it, although there 
was a meek and rather sad expression in his 
face, as if he were saying to himself, ' Another 
of them.' What did I read? Oh, I think 
the curse scene from * Leah.' When it was 
over he was very civil again, but this time 
not as if he were bored. What he really 
thought may be judged from the fact that 
he wrote to New York about me in such 
terms that it was not long after that I had an 
offer to join the Madison Square Company, 
then under the Mallorys' management." 

At that time " The Rajah " was being 
played by that company, and, as luck would 
have it, a week after Miss Burroughs's arrival 
in New York the leading lady was taken 
sick, and the novice was called upon to act 
Gladys, an emotional role of considerable 
power. The next play in which she took 
part was " Alpine Roses," and in this she 
acted Irene. 



Marie Burroughs. 293 

"With that part," Miss Burroughs re- 
marked, "came my first sorrow. It came 
quickly, and I thought it was dreadful. I 
had originally been cast for an emotional 
part. I had studied it and wept over it, and 
I was intending to have such a beautifully 
dolorous time, when, imagine my grief ! I 
was transferred to the comedy part. I was 
to play a light, frisky role in place of all my 
pretty heroics. Wasn't that tragic ? Oh, I 
was like the rest. I was going right home. 
I did not want to act any at all if I could 
not act as I wanted to. But I was appeased 
and made a hit, and recollect what a com- 
pany that was to make a hit in, — Richard 
Mansfield, W. J. LeMoyne, George Clarke, 
Georgia Cay van, and Mrs. Whiff en." 

After "Alpine Roses," Miss Burroughs 
went on the road with the company, appear- 
ing in the repertory that included " Hazel 
Kirke," " Esmeralda," and "After the Ball." 
The tour ended in New Orleans. Wallack's 



294 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

company at that time was appearing through- 
out Texas and when the troupe was in Galves- 
ton, Sophie Eyre, who was acting leading 
parts, suddenly left it. Miss Burroughs was 
sent for, and at forty-eight hours' notice as- 
sumed the role of Zicka in " Diplomacy," and 
after that the leading part in "Lady Clare," the 
Wallack version of "Le Maitre des Forges." 

"That really was a great experience," 
Miss Burroughs commented. " Fancy at 
eighteen playing such a part as Zicka any- 
way, but playing it at forty-eight hours' notice. 
It was the divine courage of ignorance." 

When she returned to New York, Miss 
Burroughs acted Pauline March when Robert 
Mantell appeared with Jessie Mill ward in 
Hugh Conway's "Called Back." Soon after 
A. M. Palmer took charge of the Madison 
Square Theatre, and Miss Burroughs became 
associated with the famous organisation 
identified with that house. She created the 
part of Queen Guinevere in " Elaine," with 



Marie Burroughs. 295 

Annie Russell as the Lily Maid of Astolat, 
and Alexander Salvini as Sir Launcelot. 
With Mr. Palmer Miss Burroughs first ap- 
peared in a play by Henry Arthur Jones, 
with whose heroines she was afterward so 
thoroughly identified when acting with E. S. 
Willard. The character that she played with 
the Palmer company was Lettie in " Saints 
and Sinners." 

" Mr. Jones came to New York to rehearse 
' Saints and Sinners,' " said Miss Burroughs, 
" and I have a picture of him on which he 
has written his name and ' To my Lettie.' 
I shall never forget that last rehearsal of 
'Saints and Sinners.' It took place on the 
afternoon of the day of the first performance. 
It began at an early hour in the morning. 
It came to an abrupt end in the middle of 
the long afternoon, five hours and more 
later, with me in tears, Mr. Jones in a tantrum, 
and the whole company in disorder, and only 
the third act reached. What was the mat- 



296 Famous Actresses of the Day. 



ter? Oh, nothing much, only the play had 
been rehearsed too much and we were all 
unstrung. The whole weight of it came on 
Mr. Stoddart and me, and every one was so 
anxious for me to do well. The stage mana- 
ger was full of ideas about the part ; Mr. 
Jones was in a similar condition ; each mem- 
ber of the company had taken me aside and 
given me a point here and there and their 
opinion of how to do it, and, alas ! I had a 
few ideas myself which I was hoping to get 
a chance to work in. That was the result. 
We dragged along miserably, until I broke 
down and began to cry, and then the men, 
of course, got the thing over as soon as 
possible, and the rehearsal was dismissed in 
despair. We had just time to eat and get 
back to the theatre and start the play, with the 
idea that we were momentarily approaching 
the place where the rehearsal stopped so sum- 
marily. As a matter of fact, the part we didn't 
rehearse went better than that which we did." 






Marie Burroughs. 297 

With Mr. Palmer Miss Burroughs also 
acted Florida in "A Foregone Conclusion," 
Marjory in " Marjory's Lovers," and ap- 
peared in "Partners," "Heart of Hearts," 
"Captain Swift," and other plays. In 1889 
Miss Burroughs went to London and saw 
Mr. Willard in "The Middleman," though 
at that time she had no idea of playing with 
him in this country. Olga Brandon was en- 
gaged for the English actor's support in the 
United States, but at the last moment re- 
fused to leave London. Then Miss Bur- 
roughs got her opportunity, and her work 
with Mr. Willard added greatly to her rep- 
utation. During his successive tours she 
appeared as Mary Blenkern in " The Middle- 
man," Vashti Dethic in " Judah," Kate Nor- 
bury in " John Needham's Double," the 
leading female character in "Wealth," Lucy 
in "The Professor's Love Story," and Ophe- 
lia in " Hamlet." 

In the fall of 1 894 Miss Burroughs started 



298 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

out as a star, presenting for the first time 
in this country Arthur W. Pinero's drama, 
"The Profligate," and after that making 
productions of " Romeo and Juliet " and 
"Leah." In the spring of 1898 she was 
associated with Robert Hillard, and last 
season she appeared with Stuart Robson in 
Augustus Thomas's comedy, " The Med- 
dler." While Miss Burroughs's starring 
venture showed that she hardly had suffi- 
cient power alone to carry a play to success, 
she is nevertheless one of the most thor- 
oughly equipped and most satisfactory lead- 
ing women that we have. She makes a 
strikingly beautiful picture on the stage ; her 
face is one of much sweetness and her per- 
sonality one of great charm. As Vashti in 
" Judah " she is at her best. It is an im- 
personation of great delicacy, winsomely ten- 
der and touchingly pathetic. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

KATHRYN KIDDER. 

Kathryn Kidder won her spurs in the 
fall of 1895 by her impersonation of the 
laundress and bourgeoise aristocrat in Sar- 
dou's " Madame Sans-Gene," and her appear- 
ance in this role was a piece of brilliant 
audacity. When Sardou finished " Madame 
Sans-Gene," he sent a copy of the play to 
his American agent with instructions to sell 
the rights to present the piece in this coun- 
try for $5,000. Charles Frohman looked the 
drama over and did not like it ; A. M. Palmer 
could find nothing in it to warrant him risk- 
ing a production, and Augustin Daly also 
refused to have anything to do with it. So 
the manuscript drifted around, seeking a pur- 
299 



300 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

chaser, until by some chance or other it fell 
into Miss Kidder's hands. With superb 
courage she invested all her little capital in 
the comedy, and then began a weary hunt 
for a manager. She met with rebuffs every- 
where, until Augustus Pitou finally consented 
to help her out. Her sweet revenge came 
when Rejane made her phenomenal success 
in the drama in Paris. Mr. Daly wanted a 
new play for Ada Rehan, and decided that 
" Madame Sans-Gene " would just about fill 
the bill. Consequently Miss Kidder had the 
gratification of refusing an offer of $15,000 
for the American rights of which she was 
the undisputed owner. Mr. Pitou gave the 
drama a magnificent production, and then 
Miss Kidder's triumph was complete. 

Miss Kidder was born in Newark, New Jer- 
sey, and was the granddaughter of the Rever- 
end D. P. Kidder, a prominent Newark divine. 
The old Kidder homestead was situated in 
the heart of the city, and was a quaint old 



Kathryn Kidder. 301 

mansion, well remembered by the residents 
of Newark as one of the prettiest home spots 
of the place. Miss Kidder's beginnings on 
the stage were attended with difficulty, for, 
in addition to her own inexperience and lack 
of acquaintanceship in theatrical circles, she 
had to contend with the open hostility of 
her family. Her debut was made in 1885, 
when she was seventeen years old, as Wanda 
in "Norbeck," a dramatisation by Frank 
Mayo from a German novel by Mrs. Werner, 
called "Vineta." Mr. Mayo hoped to repeat 
his Davy Crockett success with this play, 
which had a number of fine situations, but 
it hardly met his expectations, though he 
continued it in his repertory for several sea- 
sons. Miss Kidder stayed in Mr. Mayo's 
company about a year, and then acted in 
" Held by the Enemy" during its run at the 
Madison Square Theatre, New York. After 
that she went to Paris to study, and during 
the twelve months that followed she learned 



302 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

fencing stage dancing, and French, besides 
constantly attending the theatres, especially 
the Comedie Franchise. 

On her return to this country she played 
Dearest in "Little Lord Fauntleroy," during 
the play's long stay in New York, and then 
went on the road with a "fly by night" 
company, of which Joseph Haworth was the 
leading man. 

" I went out with the repertoire for expe- 
rience, and I had it," said Miss Kidder. 
"We travelled to Texas and the far West, 
and wandered from the North to the South 
of the land. We played everything. Noth- 
ing was too tremendous for us to attempt, 
nothing too ambitious for us. The salary 
was poor, the exigencies of dress many, for 
I had to have all sorts of costumes, and the 
travel was hard, yet I count that one of the 
most valuable and happiest times of my 
career. I cannot say that I never knew 
fatigue, for I was often very heartily and 



Kathryn Kidder. 303 

healthily tired, but I can say that k- never 
knew that mental weariness that arises from 
the necessity of having night after night to 
re-dress, mentally, a part of which you have 
grown thoroughly tired, and yet must still 
play." 

Miss Kidder came back to New York 
feeling that she had served her apprentice- 
ship, and hoping that she might find a place 
in the theatrical world worthy of the ability 
that she knew she possessed. There seemed 
to be nothing for her, however, and again 
she went abroad for a second period of study. 
When she returned home this time she found 
" Madame Sans-Gene " awaiting her. 

" I worked eighteen months on ' Madame 
Sans-Gene ' before I produced it," she said. 
"After Rejane made her great hit in it, I 
went to Paris and saw the French produc- 
tion. I sat the play through seven times, 
not that I wished to or intended to give an 
imitation of Madame Rejane, but because 



304 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

I wanted to master every detail of the busi- 
ness and the method of securing effects. I 
worked very hard in preparing the piece, 
and I worked with a perfect calmness that 
appalled my friends. I cannot say that I was 
exactly indifferent, but I do say that I be- 
came reconciled to any fate. If the play had 
failed or succeeded, it would have been all 
the same to me. You remember, perhaps, 
that universally people said that I could not 
play the part. Well, to this my mind was 
made up, — either way it settled my future. 
If I failed I should accept the fact that the 
career of a player was not my proper sphere, 
and if I succeeded I should keep on in the 
same spirit. I was anxious for the verdict, 
that was all, anxious that I might have a 
quiet conscience at least. That mood had 
such a strong hold on me that on the opening 
night I barely heard the applause, and when 
I read the morning papers with so much of 
praise and nothing of blame I wondered at 






Kathryn Kidder. 305- 

myself that I could not feel elated. It was 
simply the settling to me of a vexed problem 
in my own favour." 

After her success with " Madame Sans- 
Gene," which she continued to present for 
two seasons, Miss Kidder turned her at- 
tention to classic roles, one of her note- 
worthy characters being Rosalind in " As 
You Like It." Last season she was a 
member of the Louis James-Kathryn Kidder- 
Frederick Warde combination, which was 
well received throughout the South and 
West in Shakespeare' s plays and in several 
of the old comedies. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

HELENA MODJESKA. 

Helena Modjeska, a Pole by birth and 
a dramatic artist of reputation in her own 
country before she left it in 1876 practically 
an exile, first acted in the United States in 
1877 at San Francisco, having accomplished 
in nine months the great task of mastering 
the English language sufficiently for stage 
purposes. This feat was a characteristic 
achievement, which showed the indomitable 
will, the wonderful energy, and the mental 
capacity of this remarkable woman, who, 
during a theatrical career thirty-eight years 
in duration and world-wide in its triumphs, 
has always been identified with the seri- 
ous drama, and has never, even amid dis- 
306 



Helena Modjeska. 307 

couragement and misfortune, forsaken her 
artistic ideal. Modjeska loves her art, and 
she delights to exercise it in congenial sur- 
roundings. She was for many years a tragic 
actress of unusual power, but of late years 
her acting has lost somewhat in force. She 
retains, however, much of her delightful per- 
sonal charm, and the delicacy of her work, 
its dignity, refinement, pathos, and tenderness 
are still noteworthy. As a student she is 
entitled to a foremost place among actresses. 
She follows the uncommon method of ap- 
proaching her characters — especially her 
Shakespearian characters — from the stand- 
point of the critic rather than from that of 
the histrion ; she views them intellectually 
instead of emotionally ; her first question 
is, What does it mean ? and not, How shall 
I express it ? 

Modjeska illustrates excellently well how 
far separated are the tragic actress and the 
emotional actress, using emotion in its modern 



308 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

stage sense as applied to such parts as Mar- 
guerite Gauthier in " Camille." It has been 
many times proved that, while a tragic actress 
can successfully act the semi-hysterical Mar- 
guerite Gauthier, an actress whose only claim 
to attention lies in her effectiveness in 
emotional roles finds herself lost in the en- 
vironment of the poetic drama. The purely 
emotional requires only the dramatic instinct, 
coupled, of course, with adequate stage expe- 
rience ; poetry, on the other hand, requires, in 
addition to dramatic instinct and stage expe- 
rience, intellectual appreciation and grasp of 
the character assumed as a whole. Now, the 
modern actress who is emotional by training 
— or rather because of lack of training — 
cannot see a character as a whole, and she 
fails in the poetic drama, not because she 
cannot grasp the significance of poetry, but 
because she has never been taught properly 
to study and assimilate a character. Accus- 
tomed to the weak character-drawing and 



Helena Modjeska. 309 

overwhelming incident of the modern drama, 
she has formed the habit of working up her 
part by piecemeal, and not only has she not 
trained herself, she absolutely does not know 
what it means, to present a conception that 
in the first act fully and logically compre- 
hends the last act. Modjeska, some time 
ago, vividly expressed the idea as follows : 

" I never undertake a role unless I can see 
it before me. The idea in my mind must 
stand out before me so that I can see it, look 
at it. It must be an impersonation, a pres- 
ence, and unless I can see it so I will not 
play it. I have tried to study Lady Macbeth, 
but I cannot see her yet. I do not bring her 
before me nor do I see how she would act 
and look, and until I do I will never try, to 
play her. A character must prefigure itself 
before me before I grasp it, and when it does 
not I wait." 

" Do you find that you can analyse your 
success ? " she was asked. " That is, when the 






310 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

spell is perfect can you tell why it is so, or 
what has produced the perfection of artistic 
illusion ? " 

" Never," she returned. " I have been ill 
and played better than I ever did before. 
Then I have been ill and not played well. 
So it is with playing when I was well. I 
cannot say that I have succeeded to-night 
because I was well or ill, or happy, or anx- 
ious, or satisfied. The combination of subtle 
elements that unite to produce that intangi- 
ble and indefinable thing we name success is 
something I cannot grasp nor define, for it 
is in the spiritual conditions. Now Mr. Jef- 
ferson has what he calls his ' demon,' and if 
his demon is not with him he cannot play 
well. I call mine my angel, and I say unless 
my angel is with me I cannot play to-night." 

Modjeska's theatrical life in America is 
closely interwoven with that of Edwin Booth, 
whom she so much resembles in the matter 
of poetic temperament. It was Booth who 



Helena Modjeska. 311 

encouraged her to try her fortune in this 
country. In 1876 Modjeska, who was then 
striving to make both ends meet in an experi- 
mental Polish colony in California, first saw 
Booth play. She was anxious to act with 
him then, but she could not speak English. 
Friends proposed that she give Ophelia in 
French to Booth's Hamlet in English, but 
Booth was not willing to sacrifice the time 
for rehearsals that such a venture would 
require. He did, however, consent to a 
private reading by Modjeska, who gave in 
French scenes from Corneille, Racine, and 
Dumas. The " Medae " recitation in "Adri- 
enne Lecouvreur" was among her efforts, 
and also a scene from " Camilla" From 
Schiller's " Robbers " a declamation in Ger- 
man was made, and in Polish a fine poem, — 
" Hagar in the Wilderness." 

Booth was so impressed with her evident 
genius that he advised her to study English. 
Nine months later she presented " Adrienne 



312 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Lecouvreur," the play with which nine years 
before she had conquered the prejudices of 
Warsaw, in San Francisco, and was enthu- 
siastically received. Modjeska's first appear- 
ance on the same stage with Booth was on 
April 30, 1883, when she acted Juliet to his 
Romeo, at the closing of the unfortunate 
Booth's Theatre in New York. On May 21, 
1888, when " Hamlet" was given with a 
great star cast for Lester Wallack's benefit, 
Booth appearing as Hamlet, and Joseph 
Jefferson and William Florence as the two 
grave-diggers, Modjeska was the Ophelia. 
The next year she became associated with 
Booth in a starring tour. 

Modjeska was born in Cracow, Poland, at 
the time of Poland's troubles with Austria. 
Her father, Michael Opido, was a Tatra 
mountaineer, and a man of much natural 
refinement, fond of art and music. Modjes- 
ka's first recollection is a peculiar incident 
connected with her father's death. Michael 



Helena Modjeska. 313 

Opido caught cold while attending a sick 
friend, and, accompanied by one of his sons, 
went to the mountains to recuperate. A few 
days after his departure the mother and chil- 
dren were sitting together when, without any 
knock or announcement, a peasant woman 
entered the room. She took no notice of the 
family, but walked straight across the room to 
another door, her head bowed, her hands 
crossed on her breast. Madame Opido started 
up. " What do you want ? " she cried, but 
got no answer. The apartment had but one 
entrance, and the room which the peasant 
woman approached had no other door but the 
one by which she could enter. " Do not go 
there," cried Madame Opido, " there is no 
way out but this." The woman took no 
notice, but went through the doorway. 
Madame Opido rushed after her, but she 
was not there — she had vanished. " Did 
you not see her ? " she asked of the children. 
" Where has she gone ? " None of the chil- 






314 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

dren had seen her except Helena. Madame 
Opido remembered, now that the vision had 
passed, that the woman wore the peasant 
dress of the mountaineers ; all day long she 
wept bitterly, expecting to hear some terrible 
news of her husband, and on the morrow 
came the intelligence that he had died at the 
very hour when this apparition of the peasant 
had visited the family. 

After her father's death, Modjeska' s earli- 
est remembrance of her childhood is that of 
seeing a man shot in the street. There was 
a great scream outside the house ; the chil- 
dren all ran to see what it could be, and, as 
they rushed out, saw the blood flow from tne 
wound. They were familiar with the sights 
and sounds of fighting ; and Modjeska can 
well remember hiding behind a wall to pick 
up shot and gather it in her pinafore. 

When Modjeska was seven years old she 
was taken to the theatre for the first time, 
and the experience so excited her that her 



Helena Modjeska. 315 

mother declared that she should never go 
again. Consequently, she was fourteen years 
old before she got a second sight of the 
inside of a playhouse, although in the mean- 
time two of her brothers had become actors. 
The play was " Hamlet," acted by Fritz 
Devrient, and from that time dated Modjes- 
ka's fondness for Shakespeare. She was 
married to her guardian, Modrzejewski (from 
which comes Modjeska), when she was seven- 
teen years old, and her husband aided her in 
her ambition to be an actress by organising a 
small travelling company. It was quite a 
family affair, being composed of herself, her 
husband, who was manager, her sister and 
her sister's husband, and three of her brothers. 
Modjeska' s wardrobe consisted of two dresses, 
a white one for comedy and a black one for 
tragedy. Modjeska' s husband died shortly 
after this, and for several years she acted in 
various theatres, in small Polish towns. In 
1865 she returned to her native Cracow to 



3 1 6 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

play leading parts in the theatre there, with 
which her half-brother, Felix Benda, was also 
connected. Soon her fame spread all over 
Poland, and she even received proposals to 
appear in France and Germany. Alexander 
Dumas, ftls, invited her to come to Paris and 
play Marguerite Gauthier and other of his 
characters, but she refused to leave Poland. 
In 1868 Modjeska was married to Charles 
Chlapowski, Count Bozenta, and immediately 
after came her great triumph in Warsaw. 

It is a curious fact that Modjeska's first 
engagement at the Warsaw Theatre was the 
result of an American innovation, Count 
MonkhanofT, the new manager, being de- 
sirous of infusing new life into the slow- 
going establishment, engaging her for twelve 
performances, on terms similar to those of a 
regular star engagement. This was the in- 
novation against which the majority of the 
members of the Warsaw Theatre conspired, 
and, to effect their purposes, an attack was 



Helena Mo dje ska. 317 

made on the new actress by the leading 
journal of the city, the chief editor of which 
was the husband of the principal tragedi- 
enne of the theatre. Though other papers 
condemned the attack as unjustifiable, it 
depressed the spirits of Modjeska, while in- 
creasing the public interest in her debut. 
At her first rehearsal some of her opponents 
in the company persuaded her to select 
"Adrienne Lecouvreur" for her first pub- 
lic appearance, as they thought she would 
certainly fail in it. By the advice of an old 
friend, she acted very poorly at the rehearsal 
of " Adrienne," and a few days before her 
public appearance in the part the wife of 
the editor who had attacked her took her 
place, through the influence of the cabal, in 
the absence of the president of the company 
from Warsaw. The object of the substitute 
was to take off the prestige of novelty from 
the play, and crush by comparison the new 
actress. But the poor acting of her enemy 



318 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

encouraged Modjeska, and, although attacked 
by a terrible stage fright at the beginning, 
she ended by having a complete success, 
which was crowned by the congratulations 
of the great actors of the company, and the 
unanimous plaudits of the press. 

The next year Modjeska was permanently 
engaged by the Warsaw Theatre, and re- 
mained there until political difficulties com- 
pelled her and her husband to leave Poland.. 
After her successful debut in San Francisco, 
Modjeska played in the United States for 
two seasons, and then, after a short visit 
to Poland, she made her first appearance in 
London, in 1880. She acted in "Mary 
Stuart," "The Old Love and the New," 
" Romeo and Juliet," " Adrienne Lecouvreur," 
and "Heartease," a version of " Camille." 
She played continuously for a year in the 
English metropolis, where her work was 
much admired. 

Since then Modjeska has passed most of 



Helena Modjeska. 319 

her time in this country, and her theatrical 
career has been one of continued triumph. 
In January, 1895, while playing in Cincin- 
nati, she was taken seriously ill, and com- 
pelled to retire from the stage for three 
years, which period was passed on her ranch 
in California. Last season she successfully 
toured the country, repeating many of her 
best known characters, and, in addition, pro- 
ducing Shakespeare's " Anthony and Cleo- 
patra," regarding which the critic of the 
Brooklyn Eagle wrote : 

" Her Cleopatra is a creature of passion, 
confident in the variety of her arts to charm, 
and unscrupulous in the use of them, but, 
withal, a woman not wholly depraved, and 
one who comes to love Anthony with the full 
strength of a woman's soul, and to grieve for 
him dead as deeply as she ever sighed for him 
living. The high points of the performance 
are the pathos of her grief over Anthony's 
body, and the classic, sculptural beauty of her 



320 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

own death, in which the economy of means to 
the result produced was the very acme of tech- 
nical artistic excellence. But, like Modjeska's 
other characters, her Cleopatra is not to be 
judged by any single scene. It is the exqui- 
site harmony, and the proportion of all her 
scenes to each other, which places her upon 
a higher plane than actors who have more 
power in single moments. In her early 
scenes of cajolery with Anthony, she shows 
much of the diversity and charm which mark 
the forest scenes of her Rosalind, with craft 
substituted for Rosalind's innocent gaiety. 
The variety and beauty of the early part of 
the scene upon the terrace, where she 
mourns for Anthony, absent in Rome, are 
matchless. When the news of his marriage 
to Octavia comes, there is a Bernhardtesque 
fierceness about her treatment of the mes- 
senger. The wrath is clearly prescribed by 
Shakespeare ; it gives variety to her Cleo- 
patra, and it is theatrically effective, but to 



Helena Modjeska. 321 

one observer, at least, it seemed less excel- 
lent than almost any large scene in the play ; 
perhaps because it is so obvious and easy, 
and Modjeska ordinarily scorns obvious 
things, and emphasises the more obscure 
side of her characters. The calm contempt 
and utter absence of fear with which she 
received the reproaches of Anthony were 
admirable, and the queenly confidence with 
which she approached him once more to try 
her blandishments was superb. In that 
movement spoke the 'proud ruler of a 
hundred kings.' " 

Modjeska's Shakespearian repertory in- 
cludes Beatrice, Cleopatra, Imogen, Juliet, 
Lady Macbeth, Portia, Ophelia, Rosalind, 
and Viola. Outside of Shakespeare there is 
her great part, Adrienne Lecouvreur, besides 
Andrea in " Prince Zillah," Camille, Donna 
Diana, Julie de Mortemar in " Richelieu," 
Gilberte in " Frou-Frou," Magda, which 
she created in this country, Mary Stuart, 



322 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

"Nadjezda," Nora in Ibsen's "A Doll's 
House," Countess Von Lexon in " Daniela," 
Louise Greville in "The Tragic Mask," and 
Marie de Verneuil in " Les Chouans." 




MAY ROBSON 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

MAY ROB SON. 

May Robson is that rarest thing among 
women, a genuine eccentric comedy actress. 
I do not recall at this moment that she 
has ever shown her own face, which, by the 
way, is a very pretty one, on the stage, and 
she has no hesitancy whatever about making 
herself as ugly or as ridiculous as grease 
paint, comical wigs, and outlandish costumes 
will admit. The types that she caricatures 
are widely differentiated, and her invention 
in the line of character parts apparently has 
no limitations. Of course, she burlesques 
beyond all reason, but to burlesque is the 
common failing of all eccentric comedians, 
who naturally think more of a laugh than 
3 2 3 



324 .Famous Actresses of the Day. 

they do of an artistic impersonation. Miss 
Robson, however, is funny enough to be 
forgiven, and her characters, moreover, have 
the saving grace of originality, for she never 
imitates. 

Her last " study " was with " Lord and 
Lady Algy," at the Empire Theatre, New 
York, and the appearance of the old fright 
of a mother at the fancy dress ball in the 
second act, costumed as a shepherdess " after 
Sir Joshua Reynolds," was one of the most 
laughable entrances imaginable. Previous to 
that, she played Poulette in "The Conquer- 
ors," and this, besides being a character 
study, was to a degree a study in character. 
Poulette was a French grisette, who had 
grown old in the service, whose physical 
attractiveness had faded, and whose mind 
was vacuity. Miss Robson might have tried 
to make the creature pathetic, in which case 
she would probably have only succeeded in 
making her disgusting. She chose the sim- 



May Robson. 325 

pier and safer course, and her Poulette, with 
her chalked and rouged face, her high pen- 
ciled eyebrows, and her kittenish manner, 
was comical. 

" What the brush is to the artist," said 
Miss Robson, in describing how she makes 
up, " make-up is to the actor. I cannot act 
without it. How do I put it on ? Mix it 
with brains, as Sir Joshua Reynolds said. 
Observe, watch, experiment ; that's the way. 
You often hear young actresses complaining 
that they can't understand how the veterans 
in the business get such perfect make-ups. 
By observing, that's how ; not on the stage, 
but in the street, in street cars, elevated 
cars, — everywhere. The born actress is 
always seeing types. She stores them away 
in her memory for future use. Why, an 
actor or actress who is worth his salt is as 
constantly on the lookout for fresh character 
studies as a painter. Some are comic. The 
lines of the face irresistibly suggest laughter. 



326 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

Perhaps such people are more to be pitied 
than the others whose faces tell a moving 
tale of sorrow and suffering. But all are 
of use. They suggest make-ups, expression, 
character. It's the only way to be perfectly 
natural, — to imitate nature, and have a 
definite type in mind in outlining every 
part. 

"When I began, of course I wanted to 
look pretty. I was cast for the part of 
Tilly in the ' Hoop of Gold,' and I had the 
idea that I ought to have pretty dresses, 
red cheeks, fluffy hair, and all that. But 
common sense came to my rescue, and I 
saw I was on the point of making an artis- 
tic blunder, or, rather, an inartistic one. I 
saw that Tilly wasn't a society girl, but a 
puny thing, with prominent cheek-bones, 
rough hands, and a gawky figure, and I 
made her so. I've played many a part 
since, but the first in which I ever used 
a juvenile make-up was Audrey in a perform- 



1 



May Robson. 327 

ance given by the Twelfth Night Club last 
year. I made her uncouth, but not homely, 
with an awkward body and a nasal voice. 

" Now, here's a glimpse at the technique 
of make-up. For Audrey I used a blonde 
make-up, — first a careful coating of cold 
cream, the flesh-coloured grease paint, 
smoothed carefully for the buxom country 
girl's beautiful complexion. I was then 
ready for my No. 18 rouge, blended first 
with a rabbit's foot, and then with my fin- 
gers. Then I covered my face with rice 
powder. I used a blue shading over and 
under my eyes, blended so as to give them 
that round, innocent, wondering expression ; 
then the Cupid' s-bow mouth and the wig, 
and there you are. By shading and tinting, 
by lines above and below and at the sides, 
an actress can give herself any expression. 
But she must know how to do it ; she 
must be an artist and an observer, and her 
brush must be skilful. 



328 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

" In some characters I use no make-up, 
or rather a trick make-up, like that in ' The 
Sphinx.' In that I use a small, stiff wire 
propped between the nostrils, so as to make 
the nose wider and natter. Sort of a Kal- 
muk face. The sensation is unpleasant, but 
not absolutely painful. For that matter, 
grease paint is not the pleasantest thing to 
have on the face, but you get used to it. 
Of course, I have to have wigs to match 
every part. That is something the actress 
can't make for herself, but she can design, 
invent, and devise, and the wigmaker can 
be made to follow her directions. The same 
is true of the costumer; and of course both 
wigmaker and costumer are oftenest called 
upon to imitate nature, to imitate painstak- 
ingly some queer, odd, or pathetic bit of 
human material picked up in the street by 
the actress herself. I'll give you an instance. 
As Miss Prim in 'The Importance of Being 
Earnest,' I got my idea of the make-up from 



May Robson. 329 

a poor, overworked farmer's wife, tired and 
worn by care and worry, whom I had known. 
I studied the lines in her face, and imitated 
them so that I won the sympathy of the 
audience. 

"Some actresses think that a juvenile 
make-up is simple — just a few daubs of 
rouge, lines under the eyes, red on the lips, 
and so on. But it's not so easy. One girl 
should put white on the inside of the eyelid, 
because the pupils of her eyes are too large 
for the rest. Another should use the directly 
opposite method of loading the lashes with 
cosmetics, because the pupil is encircled with 
white and she needs the colour." 

May Robson, whose name is Mary Robison 
and who was rechristened by a blundering 
compositor when she made her first appear- 
ance on the stage, was born in Australia. 
She was the daughter of English people of 
high standing, her father being an officer in 
the British navy. She was educated in Paris 






330 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

and Belgium. In Paris she took the prize of 
the Red Cross, the highest form of gradua- 
tion at the school Sumboiselle, and the pro- 
ficiency in French that she acquired during 
her school days later stood her in good 
stead. When she was a mere girl she ran 
away from home and married, and her life 
for the next few years was an unhappy one. 
She finally found herself a penniless widow 
in New York with three little children to 
care for. She could draw and paint rather 
cleverly, and she started to fight poverty 
with these modest talents. She decorated 
china, painted on satin, and designed dinner 
menus, between times sandwiching in several 
classes in painting. Affairs seemed to pros- 
per with her for a time, for the craze of china 
painting was at its height, and orders from 
Tiffany's and other firms were plenty. Then 
the fad passed over, and the money did not 
come in so rapidly. Sickness entered the 
little home, and two of the children died, 



May Robson. 331 

one from scarlet fever, the other from diph- 
theria. These were indeed gloomy times 
with the plucky woman. 

" There wasn't a soul belonging to me," 
said Miss Robson, " who ever had been able 
to recite even ' Mary had a little lamb,' and I 
had no more intention of going on the stage 
than you have this minute, when one day I 
was passing Simmons & Brown's theatrical 
agency, and the idea seized me to go up and 
apply for a situation in some company. I 
went up, and while I was waiting my turn 
to see Mr. Simmons, I overheard Mr. Han- 
Ion, one of the Hanlon Brothers, endeavour- 
ing in vain to get a lot of American girls, 
whom he was trying to engage, to understand 
him. On the impulse of the moment I offered 
my services as a French interpreter. After 
we got through Hanlon turned to me and 
asked me if I was open for an engagement. 
I said I was, and then and there he engaged 
me to play the French widow in ' Le Voyage 



332 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

en Suisse.' That was Saturday. The next 
day he took me to the Grand Central station 
to meet his brother, who was to pass through 
the city, to have the bargain clinched. Said 
his brother, ' And how long have you been 
on the stage ? ' ' Never was,' said I, and the 
brother who had engaged me without asking 
the pivotal question disappeared down the 
platform as if shot from a gun. Mr. Hanlon 
could not risk putting an important role in 
the hands of an ignoramus on matters theat- 
ric, and the next day I turned up again at the 
agency and related the circumstances of my 
sudden fall from high hopes. 

" The upshot of it all was that a friend told 
me that, though I had talent, he thought, yet 
I'd never get an engagement if I said I had 
had no experience. What I must do was to 
pretend I had. Before long I was engaged 
to play Diamond in « The Hoop of Gold,' a 
melodramatic creation of the cast-off-daugh- 
ter-of-an-obdurate-father style. This was at 



May Robson. 333 

the Madison Square Theatre. The morning 
of the first rehearsal came. I had been told 
to watch the others, and do just as they did. 
My turn came. 'Take the stage/ said the 
stage manager, old Mr. Morse. If he had 
told me to take the sky, I'd have been as 
wise. I clutched the table behind me and 
piped up my lines in a thin little voice, and 
was horribly conscious that the others were 
guying me for my greenness. The stage 
manager walked over to me and said, ' How 
long have you been on the stage ? ' I never 
had told a deliberate lie, and it choked me. 
I hemmed and hawed and said, ' Let me see, 
let me see.' 'Let me see,' said Mr. Morse, 
looking straight into my eyes, ' I should 
say about fifteen minutes.' 'Yes,' I said, 
glad it was out, and expecting my walking- 
ticket. But he helped me after the rehear- 
sal, and the next day I wasn't so very 
dreadful. 

"There was a small character part, the 



334 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

slavey Tilly, in that same play that I asked 
to be allowed to do, having even then a 
fondness for dialect and odd specimens of 
humanity. On the opening night I made a 
hit, but it was as the slavey, not as Diamond, 
and thereafter I was billed to play that part, 
while ' Di ' was put on the bills as played by 
some faked name. And that's how I went 
on the stage, without malice prepense, sure 
enough." 

After "The Hoop of Gold " Miss Robson 
was engaged by Daniel Frohman for the 
Lyceum Theatre. Later she came under 
Charles Frohman' s management, and has 
for many seasons been identified with the 
Empire Theatre Company. In her way 
Miss Robson is something of an inventor, 
and her third leg in "The Poet and the 
Puppets," and her amazing wig in "The 
Councillor's Wife," are readily recalled as 
examples of her ingenuity. The leg was 
first used, some six months before "The 






May Rob son. 335 

Poet and the Puppets " was produced, in 
"The Shining Light," but it was perfected 
and made a feature in the later show. 

"I invented the leg," Miss Robson ex- 
plained, " because I couldn't dance, and 
because I had to dance in my part as a 
cafe chantant woman in ' A Shining Light.' I 
had either to dance or to admit that I wasn't 
up to the business. Of course I couldn't 
do the latter, so I had to devise some way to 
do the dance. One day I was walking down 
Broadway when I happened to see in a win- 
dow one of those artificial legs on which they 
display stockings. An idea struck me, and 
I hurried home to try it. I stuffed a stock- 
ing, put a shoe on it, and then stuck my 
husband's cane into it. I put an extra skirt 
around this leg and tried the effect before 
the looking glass. It was funny, very funny. 
I then went to a maker of artificial limbs and 
told him what I wanted. Of course I altered 
the mechanism some afterward, as I found 



. 



336 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

by experience where changes had to be made. 
The leg was attached by a socket to a loose 
belt which I could easily shift, so that in 
a moment I could have the extra member 
hanging in front, at either side, or behind. 
The mechanism was so arranged that all 
I had to do was to start the leg in a certain 
direction, and up it went the rest of the way 
itself. Now my idea about this whole busi- 
ness was that the three legs should not be 
shown. When I danced I stooped in such a 
way as to conceal my real right leg under my 
skirts, and then the artificial limb took its 
place. I only showed all three limbs when 
I was leaving the stage and wanted to give 
the joke away." 

The wig in " The Councillor's Wife " was 
also something of a dancing wonder. The 
audience on the first night thought, when 
the bangs made a dive for the old lady's 
nose, that it was all a mistake. The old 
lady's discomfiture, they thought, was that 



May Robs on. 337 

of the actress in not being able to control 
her wig, and the house rang with laughter 
as she straightened her bangs and her cork- 
screw curls. When the old lady became 
extremely angry and the bangs shot far 
back on the head, revealing six inches of 
bald pate, the audience howled with glee, 
as they watched the actress gesticulating 
and repeating her lines with great fervour, 
apparently unaware that her hair was coming 
off. At another time the bangs went over 
the right eye, and then over the left, and the 
audience still thought it was all a mistake. 

"There was really nothing remarkable 
about that wig," was Miss Robson's com- 
ment, when asked to explain how it was 
done. "The hair was controlled by wires 
which ran around the head. They met at 
the top of the knot of my own hair, which 
was coiled at the nape of the neck. At that 
place one wire was attached, which passed 
down my back and under my arm, coming 



HBHHHH 



338 Famous Actresses of the Day. 

out of a buttonhole in front. It was by this 
wire and a few artful shakes of the head that 
the bangs were thrown about the head. They 
could not fall off, as the wires would allow 
them to go only a certain distance each way." 
Miss Robson, in private life, is Mrs. 
Augustus H. Brown, the wife of a New 
York physician, whom she married after 
she became an actress, and her home in 
that city is a model of comfort and elegance. 
She has been before the public about fifteen 
years now. As representative of her work 
may be mentioned, in addition to those char- 
acters already noticed, her appearances as 
Miss Ashford in "The Private Secretary," 
Artemise in "A Night's Session," Vene- 
randa in " Foregone Conclusions ; " her act- 
ing in " Gloriana," " Lady Bountiful," and 
" Liberty Hall ; " and her personation of the 
landlady in the production of " Squirrel Inn," 
by the Theatre of Arts and Letters, and her 
Madame Benoit in "Bohemia." 



INDEX 



FAMOUS ACTRESSES. 



" Across the Continent," 
Fiske, Mrs., 60. 
Rehan, Ada, 115. 
Ada Houghton, " Sealed 
Instructions," Annie Rus- 
sell as, 90. 
Ada Ingot, "David Gar- 
rick," Annie Russell as, 

93- 

Adams, Annie, 13. 

Adams, Maude, 11, 103. 

Adrienne, " Monsieur Al- 
phonse," Mrs. Fiske as, 60. 

"Adrienne Lecouvreur," 
Helena Modjeska in, 311, 
317,318, 321. 

" Adventure of Lady Ur- 
sula," Virginia Harned in, 

125, 133- 

"After the Ball," Marie 
Burroughs in, 293. 

" Alabama," Lillian Law- 
rence in, 241. 

Aldrich, Louis, 131. 

Alexander, George, 273, 276, 
283, 284. 



Alfred, " Divorce," Mrs. 

Fiske as, 61. 
Alice Adams, " Nathan 

Hale," Maxine Elliott as, 

108. 
Alice Varney, " Forget-Me- 

Not," Maxine Elliott as, 

in. 
Allen, C. Leslie, 138. 
Allen, Mrs. C. Leslie, 138. 
Allen, Viola, 134. 
" All for Her," Rose Cogh- 

lan in, 266. 
" Alpine Roses," Marie Bur- 
roughs in, 292. 
" Amazons," 

Irving, Isabel, 103. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
" Ambassador," Fay Davis 

in, 284. 
"Ambition," Annie Russell 

in, 93. 
"American Assurance," 

Blanche Walsh in, 78. 
" American Citizen," Maxine 

Elliott in, 112. 



339 



34° Index of Famous Actresses. 



" Americans Abroad," 
Conquest, Ida, 70. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 

Amy Chilworth, " Liberty 
Hall," Ida Conquest as, 

71. 

" Amy Robsart," Blanche 

Walsh in, 76. 
Anderson, Mary, 116. 
Andrea, " Prince Zillah," 
Helena Modjeska as, 321. 
Anglin, Margaret, 270. 
Ann Cruger, " Charity Ball," 
Lillian Lawrence as, 233, 
240. 
" Anthony and Cleopatra " 
(Shakespeare), Helena 
Modjeska in, 319, 321. 
" Antony and Cleopatra " 
(Sardou), Blanche Walsh 
in, 72. 
" Aristocracy," 

Allen, Viola, 146. 
Walsh, Blanche, 77. 
Arnold, Matthew, 214. 
Arrington, Lillie, Marie Bur- 

roughs's name, 291. 
Artemise, " Night's Session," 

May Robson as, 338. 
Arthur, Julia, in, 161. 
" As You Like It," 

Anglin, Margaret, 272. 
Arthur, Julia, 167, 170. 
Coghlan, Rose, 267. 
Davis, Fay, 277, 283, 

284. 
Irving, Isabel, 103. 
Kidder, Kathryn, 305. 
Marlowe, Julia, 32. 
Modjeska, Helena, 321. 
Rehan, Ada, 120, 122. 



Robson, May, 326. 
Shaw, Mary, 216. 
Audrey, " As You Like It," 
Irving, Isabel, 103. 
Robson, May, 326. 

Babiole, " Conquerors," Ida 

Conquest as, 71. 
" Bachelor's Baby," Lillian 

Lawrence in, 239. 
" Bachelor's R o m a n c e," 

Blanche Walsh in, 80. 
Balthazar, " Romeo and 
Juliet," Julia Marlowe as, 
28. 
Bandmann, Daniel E., 165. 
" Banker's Daughter," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
LeMoyne, Sarah Cow- 
ell, 42. 
Banks, Maude, 208. 
Barbara Hare,"East Lynne," 

Ada Rehan as, 116. 
Barrett, Lawrence, 45, 141, 

189, 291. 
Barrett, Wilson, 151. 
Barron, E. A., ^d. 
Bartet, Mile., 252, 253, 254. 
Barry, Helen, 215. 
Bates, Blanche, 243. 
Bates, F. M., 243. 
" Bauble Shop," 

Adams, Maude, 16. 
DeWolfe, Elsie, 255. 
Beatrice, " Much Ado," 
Marlowe, Julia, 32. 
Modjeska, Helena, 321. 
Rehan, Ada, 121. 
Beatrice Selwyn, " Fool's 
Paradise," Maxine Elliott 
as, no. 



Index of Famous Actresses. 341 



" Because She Loved Him 
So," Ida Conquest in, 

Belasco, David, 194, 252. 
" Belle Russe," Rose Cogh- 

lan in, 267. 
" Belle's Stratagem," Julia 

Marlowe in, 33. 
Bellew, Kyrle, 157. 
" Bells of Haslemere," Viola 

Allen in, 144. 
"Benefit of a Doubt," Ida 

Conquest in, 71. 
Berenice, " Sign of the 

Cross," Corona Riccardo 

as, 152. 
Bernhardt, Sarah, 74, 227. 
Bess, "Charity Ball," Effie 

Shannon as, 192. 
Bianca, " Taming of the 

Shrew," Ada Rehan as, 

116. 
Big Clemence, " L'Assom- 

moir," Ada Rehan as, 1 18. 
" Bit of Old Chelsea," Mrs. 

Fiske in, 66. 
" Black Mask," Julia Arthur 

in, 165. 
Blair, John, 206. 
" Blot on the 'Scutcheon," 

Viola Allen in, 141. 
" Blue Jeans," Lillian Law- 
rence in, 233. 
" Bohemia," 

Conquest, Ida, 70. 
Robson, May, 338. 
Booth, Agnes, 59, 258. 
Booth, Edwin, 116, 310. 
Booth, J. B., 59. 
" Bosom Friends," Mrs. 

Fiske in, 61. 



Boston Museum, 144, 189, 
210, 211, 212, 213. 

Boucicault, Dion, 211. 

"Boys and Girls," May Ir- 
win in, 180. 

Brandon, Olga, 297. 

" Broken Hearts," Annie 
Russell in, 90. 

" Broken Seal," Julia Arthur 
in, 165. 

Brough, Fanny, Julia Mar- 
lowe known as, 32. 

" Bundle of Lies," Maxine 
Elliott in, in. 

Burroughs, Marie, 90, 291. 

Byron, Oliver Doud, 60, 115. 

" Camille," 

Modjeska, Helena, 308, 

321. 
Nethersole, Olga, 223, 
226. 
Campbell, Mrs. Patrick, 223. 
" Caprice," Mrs. Fiske in, 64. 
" Captain Lettarblair," 

Harned, Virginia, 132. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 242. 
" Captain Swift," 

Bates, Blanche, 246. 
Burroughs, Marie, 297. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
Russell, Annie, 93. 
Carey, " Alabama," Ida Con- 
quest as, 70. 
" Carmen," Olga Nethersole 

in, 223, 229. 
Caroline Mittford, " Secret 
Service," Odette Tyler as, 
285, 286. 
Carter, Mrs. Leslie, 193. 
Cartwright, Charles, 222. 



34 2 Index of Famous Actresses. 



" Caste," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 

Rehan, Ada, 116. 
" Catherine," 

DeWolfe, Elsie, 256. 

LeMoyne,Sarah Cowell, 

39- 

Russell, Annie, 95. 
Cayvan, Georgia, 103, 187, 

293- 
" Celebrated Case," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
LeMoyne, Sarah Cow- 
ell, 42, 44. 
Celia, "As You Like It," 
Fay Davis as, 277, 283, 
284. 
" Charbonniere," Viola Allen 

in, 143. 
" Charity Ball," 

Bates, Blanche, 246. 
Conquest, Ida, 70. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 233, 

241. 
Shannon, Effie, 187, 192. 
" Chatterton," Julia Marlowe 

in, 23- 
Cheney, B. P., 166. 
" Chicago Fire," Mrs. Fiske 

in, 61. 
" Child Wife," Mrs. Fiske in, 

64. 
" Christian," Viola Allen in, 

134, 146. 
" Christopher, Jr.," 

Adams, Maude, 16. 
Anglin, Margaret, 272. 
DeWolfe, Elsie, 256. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
Cicely Homespun, " Heir-at- 
Law," Viola Allen as, 146. 



" City Directory," May Ir- 
win in, 183. 

"City of Pleasure," Effie 
Shannon in, 192. 

Clapp, Henry Austin, 39, 
170. 

Clara, " Across the Conti- 
nent," Ada Rehan as, 115. 

Clara Dexter, " Maister of 
Woodbarrow," Virginia 
Harned as, 132. 

Clarke, Annie, 210. 

Clarke, George, 131, 293. 

Claxton, Kate, 238. 

Clemmons, Katherine, 238. 

Cleopatra (Sardou), Blanche 
Walsh as, 74. 

Cleopatra (Shakespeare), 
Helena Modjeska as, 319, 
321. 

Clorinda Wildairs, " Lady 
of Quality," Julia Arthur 
as, 167, 168. 

Coghlan, Charles, 261. 

Coghlan, Rose, 1 11, 191, 258. 

" Colinette," Julia Marlowe 

in > 33- 
" Colombe's Birthday," Julia 

Marlowe in, ^3' 
" Colonial Girl," Virginia 

Harned in, 133. 
" Conquerors," 

Allen, Viola, 146. 

Conquest, Ida, 71. 

Robson, May, 324. 

Walsh, Blanche, 80 
Conquest, Ida, 69. 
Coquelin, 254. 
Cordelia, " King Lear," 

Allen, Viola, 141. 

Rehan, Ada, 116. 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



343 



" Coriolanus," Effie Shannon 

in, 192. 
" Corsican Brothers," Vir- 
ginia Harned in, 131. 
" Councillor's Wife," 
Robson, May, 334. 
Tyler, Odette, 290. 
Countess Mirtza, " Great 
Ruby." 

Bates, Blanche, 246, 

247. 
Riccardo, Corona, 153. 
"Countess Valeska," Julia 

Marlowe in, 34. 
Countess Von Lexon, " Dan- 
iela," Helena Modjeska 
as, 322. 
" Country Girl," Ada Rehan 

in, 120. 
" Country Sport," May Irwin 

in, 184. 
" Courtship of Leonie,"Mary 

Mannering in, 1 59. 
" Cowboy and the Lady," 

Maxine Elliott in, 112. 
Crehan, Ada, Ada Rehan's 

name, 114. 
"Crust of Society," Lillian 

Lawrence in, 239. 
" Cyrano de Bergerac," 

Anglin, Margaret, 270. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 243. 
Rehan, Ada, 121. 
Cyprienne, " Divorcons," 
Mrs. Fiske as, 68. 

Daly, Augustin, 

Bates, Blanche, 243, 

246. 
Elliott, Maxine, in. 
Fiske, Mrs., 60. 



Irving, Isabel, 102. 
Irwin, May, 179. 
Rehan, Ada, 113, 117, 

119, 123. 
Riccardo, Corona, 153. 
Shannon, Effie, 191. 
Shaw, Mary, 212, 214. 
" Dancing Girl," 

Bates, Blanche, 246. 
Conquest, Ida, 70. 
Harned, Virginia, 125, 
132. 
" Dangerfield, '95," Annie 

Russell in, 94. 
" Danicheffs," Sarah Cowell 

LeMoyne in, 42, 45. 
" Daniela," Helena Mo- 
djeska in, 322. 
Daphne, " First Gentleman 
of Europe," Mary Man- 
nering as, 159. 
" Daughter of Comedy," 

Ada Rehan in, 122. 
Davenport, E. L., 60. 
Davenport, Fanny, 72, 117, 

119, 212, 214. 
" David Garrick," Blanche 

Walsh in, jj. 
Davis, Fay, 273. 
" Dean's Daughter," Olga 

Nethersole in, 221. 
DeBelleville, Frederic, 144. 
" Denise," Olga Nethersole 

in, 223. 
Desdemona, " Othello," 
Allen, Viola, 141. 
Rehan, Ada, 116. 
Riccardo, Corona, 149. 
Tyler, Odette, 285, 

286. 
Walsh, Blanche, 76. 



344 Index of Famous Actresses. 



DeWolfe, Elsie, 248. 

Diamond, " Hoop of Gold," 
May Robson, 332. 

Diana Stockton, " Aristoc- 
racy," Blanche Walsh as, 

77- 
Diane, " Monbars," Corona 

Riccardo as, 153. 
" Diplomacy," 

Burroughs, Marie, 294. 
Coghlan, Rose, 268, 

269. 
Elliott, Maxine, in. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
Nethersole, Olga, 222. 
Shannon, Effie, 192. 
Shaw, Mary, 211. 
Dithmar, E. A., 16. 
" Divorce," 

Fiske, Mrs., 61. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 242. 
Rehan, Ada, 119. 
" Divorgons," Mrs. Fiske in, 

66, 68. 
" Dollars and Sense," Ada 

Rehan in, 120. 
" Doll's House," 

Bates, Blanche, 246. 
Fiske, Mrs., 65, 209. 
Modjeska, Helena, 322. 
Donna Diana, Helena Mo- 
djeska as, 321. 
Dora, " Diplomacy," 

Elliott, Maxine, ill. 
Shannon, Effie, 192. 
Dorothea March, " Woman's 
Silence," Isabel Irving as, 
103. 
Dot Bradbury, "Midnight 
Bell," Maude Adams as, 
16. 



" Double Lesson," Isabel 

Irving in, 10 1. 
Dow, Ada, 28. 
Drew, John, 16, 99, 103, 115, 

255- 
Drew, Mrs. John, 115. 
" Drop of Poison," Mary 

Shaw in, 215. 
Drusilla Ives, " Dancing 

Girl," Virginia Harned as, 

125, 126. 
Duchess de Coutras, " Cath- 
erine," Sarah Cowell Le- 

Moyne as, 39. 
Duke of York, " Richard 

III.,;' Mrs. Fiske as, 56. 
Dulcie Larondie, " Masquer- 

aders," Fay Davis as, 

277. 
Duse, Eleanora, 82. 

Fabienne Lecoulteur, "Ther- 
midor," Elsie DeWolfe as, 

253- 
" Face in the Moonlight," 
Corona Riccardo in, 153. 
" False Shame," Virginia 

Harned in, 131. 
Fanny, " Captain Lettar- 
blair," Virginia Harned 
as, 132. 
" Fatal Card," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
Russell, Annie, 93. 
Fay Zuliani, " Princess and 
the Butterfly," 

Davis, Fay, 277, 279. 
Mannering, Mary, 159. 
" Featherbrain," 

Fiske, Mrs., 64. 
Tyler, Odette, 289. 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



345 



"Fedora," Blanche Walsh 

in, 73> 75- 

Felica Umf raville, " Middle- 
man," Maxine Elliott as, 
no. 

"Femme de Claude," Mrs. 
Fiske in, 66. 

Fento, Frank, 281. 

Field, R. M., 211. 

" First Gentleman of Eu- 
rope," Mary Mannering 
in, 159- 

Fiske, Minnie Maddern, 50, 
208, 289. 

Florence Marygold, " My 
Uncle's Will," Blanche 
Walsh as, 76. 

Florence, William, 145, 312. 

" Fogg's Ferry," Mrs. Fiske 
in, 63. 

" Fool's Paradise," 

Elliott, Maxine, no. 
Nethersole, Olga, 221. 

" For Bonnie Prince Char- 
lie," Julia Marlowe in, 33. 

" Foregone Conclusions," 
May Robson in, 338. 

" Forget-Me-Not," 

Coghlan, Rose, 266, 267, 

269. 
Elliott, Maxine, in. 

" Four-in-Hand," Elsie De- 
Wolfe in, 255. 

Francois, " Richelieu," Mrs. 
Fiske as, 59. 

Franko, " Guy Mannering," 
Mrs. Fiske as, 59. 

Frawley, T. D., 112, 244, 
246, 247. 

"Frederick Lemaitre," 
Blanche Walsh in, 76. 



"French Flats," Sarah 

Cowell LeMoyne in, 42. 
Friend, Florence, Mary Man- 
nering known as, 157. 
" Fritz," Mrs. Fiske in, 59. 
Frohman, Charles, 

Adams, Maude, 289. 

Anglin, Margaret, 271. 

Conquest, Ida, 70. 

DeWolfe, Elsie, 252. 

Irwin, May, 183. 

Lawrence, Lillian, 239. 

Robson, May, 334. 

Tyler, Odette, 289. 

Walsh, Blanche, 77. 
Frohman, Daniel, 

Conquest, Ida, 70. 

Harned, Virginia, 132. 

Irving, Isabel, 103. 

Mannering, Mary, 156. 

Robson, May, 334. 

Shannon, Erne, 187, 
191. 

Shaw, Mary, 214. 

Tyler, Odette, 289. 
Frost, Sarah Frances, Julia 

Marlowe's name, 27. 
" Frou-Frou," 

Fiske, Mrs., 60, 66. 

Nethersole, Olga, 223. 
Fusha Leach, " Moths," 

Annie Russell as, 90. 
Fyles, Franklyn, 247. 

" Gay Parisians," Odette 

Tyler in, 290. 
Galatea, " Pygmalion and 

Galatea," Julia Arthur as, 

167. 
Georgie, " Frou-Frou," Mrs. 

Fiske as, 60. 



346 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



Gertrude Ellingham, " Shen- 
andoah," Odette Tyler as, 
290. 
" Ghosts," Mary Shaw in, 

206, 209. 
Gilbert, Mrs. G. H., 321. 
Gilberte, " Frou-Frou," 

Modjeska, Helena, 179. 
Nethersole, Olga, 223. 
" Gilded Fool," 

Russell, Annie, 93. 
Walsh, Blanche, yj. 
"Girl I Left Behind 
Me," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 242. 
Tyler, Odette, 289. 
Walsh, Blanche, 77. 
" Gladiator," Viola Allen in, 

141. 
Gladys, " Rajah," Marie Bur- 
roughs as, 292. 
" Gloriana," May Robson in, 

33 8 - 
Glory Quayle, " Christian," 

Viola Allen as, 136. 
Golden, Richard, 183. 
" Gold Mine," Blanche 

Walsh in, 77. 
Goodwin, N. C., 77, 79, 93, 

108, 112. 
Grace Harkaway, " London 
Assurance," 

Elliott, Maxine, in. 
Rehan, Ada, 116. 
Walsh, Blanche, 76. 
Granger, Maude, 117. 
" Great Diamond Rob- 
bery," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 232, 

239, 242. 
Walsh, Blanche, 78. 



" Great Ruby," 

Bates, Blanche, 243, 

246, 247. 
Rehan, Ada, 121. 
Riccardo, Corona, 153. 
" Guy Mannering," Mrs. 

Fiske in, 60. 
Gwendolin Hawkins, 
" Schoolmistress," Isabel 
Irving as, 101. 

Hackett, James H., 138. 
Hackett, James K., 156. 
" Hamlet," 

Anglin, Margaret, 272. 

Burroughs, Marie, 297. 

Coghlan, Rose, 268. 

Manneringj Mary, 158. 

Modjeska, Helena, 312, 
321. 

Rehan, Ada, 116. 
Hapgood, Norman, 209, 

247. 
Hare, John, 221, 222. 
Harned, Virginia, 125. 
" Harvest," Olga Nether- 
sole in, 221. 
Haworth, Joseph, 301. 
Hawtrey, Charles, 221. 
Hayes, Prof. J. J., 274. 
" Hazel Kirke," 

Allen, Viola, 145. 

Burroughs, Marie, 293. 

Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 

Russell, Annie, 90. 
" Heartease," 

Modjeska, Helena, 318. 

Walsh, Blanche, 79. 
" Heart of Hearts," Marie 

Burroughs in, 297. 
" Heart of Maryland," Mrs. 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



347 



Leslie Carter in, 193, 196, 

200. 
" Heart of Ruby," Maxine 

Elliott in, in. 
" Hedda Gabler," Elizabeth 

Robins in, 209. 
" Heir-at-Law," Viola Allen 

in, 146. 
" Held by the Enemy," 

Kathryn Kidder in, 301. 
Helena, "Midsummer Night's 

Dream," Ada Rehan as, 

120. 
Helene, " Catherine," Elsie 

DeWolfe as, 256. 
Helen, "Hunchback," Isabel 

Irving as, 103. 
Helen Truman, " Wife," 

Lillian Lawrence as, 233, 

240. 
Hendrix," Rip Van Winkle," 

Julia Marlowe as, 28. 
Henrietta, " Two Orphans," 

Lillian Lawrence as, 238. 
H e r m i a , " Midsummer 

Night's Dream," Maxine 

Elliott as, in. 
" Hero and Leander," Mary 

Mannering in, 157. 
" Hester Crewe," Mrs. Fiske 

in, 65. 
Hilda, " Karl and Hilda," 

Mrs. Fiske as, 61. 
Hilliard, Robert, 298. 
Holland, E. M., 91. 
" Home Rule," May Irwin 

in, 183. 
"Honeymoon," Blanche 

Walsh in, 76. 
"Hoodman Blind," Viola 

Allen in, 144. 



"Hoop of Gold," May Rob- 
son in, 326, 332. 
" Hunchback," 

Irving, Isabel, 103. 
Marlowe, Julia, 30. 
Rehan, Ada, 121. 
"Hunted Down," Mrs. 
Fiske in, 59. 



" Idler." 

Lawrence, Lillian, 242. 
Nethersole, Olga, 222. 
Shannon, Erne, 191. 
"Idol of the Hour," Rose 

Coghlan in, 269. 
Imogen, Helena Modjeska 

as, 321. 
" Importance of Being Ear- 
nest,'* May Robson in, 
328. 
" Ingomar," 

Allen, Viola, 141. 
Arthur, Julia, 167. 
Marlowe, Julia, 30, 31. 
" In Honour Bound," Isabel 

Irving in, 102. 
" In Mizzoura," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
Walsh, Blanche, 77. 
" In Old Kentucky," Lillian 

Lawrence in, 238. 
" In Spite of All," 

Bates, Blanche, 246. 
Fiske, Mrs., 64. 
Tyler, Odette, 289. 
Irving, Isabel, 98. 
Irving, Sir Henry, 46, 

166. 
Irwin, Flora, 176, 183. 
Irwin, May, 174. 



348 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



Jeanne, "Broken Seal," Julia 

Arthur as, 165. 
Jeanne Marie, " Conquerors," 

Blanche Walsh as, 80. 
Jeanne, " Miss Multon," 

Annie Russell as, 86, 88. 
Jefferson, Joseph, 145, 310, 

312. 
Jewett, Henry, 134. 
" Jocelyn," Rose Coghlan 

in, 268. 
" John-a-Dreams," Elsie De- 
Wolfe in, 256. 
" John Gabriel Borkman," 

Maude Banks in, 208. 
" John Needham's Double," 
Burroughs, Marie, 297. 
Elliott, Maxine, no. 
Jones, Henry Arthur, 

295- 
" Joseph," Elsie DeWolfe 

in, 255. 
" Judah," Marie Burroughs 

in, 297, 298. 
" Judge," Elsie DeWolfe in, 

255- 
Julia, " Gladiator," Viola 

Allen as, 141. 
Julia, " Hunchback," 

Marlowe, Julia, 30. 

Rehan, Ada, 121. 
Julie de Mortemar, " Riche- 
lieu," 

Anglin, Margaret, 272. 

Modjeska, Helena, 321. 
Juliet, " Romeo and Juliet," 

Adams, Maude, 17. 

Allen, Viola, 141, 143. 

Arthur, Julia, 167, 171. 

Burroughs, Marie, 298. 

Marlowe, Julia, 36. 



Modjeska, Helena, 312, 

318,321. 
Nethersole, Olga, 223, 

227. 
Riccardo, Corona, 148. 
Tyler, Odette, 285, 286. 
Juliet Gainsborough, " Am- 
bassador," Fay Davis in, 
284. 
" Julius Caesar," Odette 

Tyler in, 285. 
June, " Blue Jeans," Lillian 

Lawrence as, 233. 
" Junior Partner," May Irwin 

in, 183. 
Justine Emptage, " Benefit 
of a Doubt," Ida Con- 
quest as, 70. 

" Karl and Hilda," Mrs. 

Fiske in, 61. 
Kate Hardcastle, " She 
Stoops to Conquer," 
Marlowe, Julia, 33, 37. 
Shaw, Mary, 211. 
Kate, "Idler," Effie Shan- 
non as, 191. 
Kate Kennion, " Girl I Left 
Behind Me," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 242. 
Walsh, Blanche, 77. 
" Kate Kip, Buyer," May 

Irwin in, 186. 
Kate Malcolm, "Sister 
Mary," Maxine Elliott as, 

Kate Norbury, "John 
Needham's D o u b 1 e," 
Marie Burroughs as, 
297. 

Katharine, " Taming of the 



Index of Famous Actresses. 349 



Shrew," Ada Rehan as, 

120, 122, 123. 
Keene, Laura, 59. 
Keene, Thomas W., 239. 
Kelcey, Herbert, 187, 192. 
"King Henry IV.," Julia 

Marlowe in, ^3- 
" King John," Mrs. Fiske in, 

59- 
" King Lear," 

Allen, Viola, 141. 
Rehan, Ada, 116. 
Kirkland, Bessie, Odette 

Tyler's name, 288. 
Kittie Ives, "Wife," Erne 
Shannon as, 191. 

Lacke, Charles E., 236. 

Lacy, Harry, 131. 

Lady Babbie, " Little Minis- 
ter," Maude Adams as, 
16. 

Lady Belton, " Marriage," 
Ida Conquest as, 71. 

" Lady Bountiful," May 
Robson in, 338. 

Lady Charley Wishanger, 
" Masqueraders," Elsie 
DeWolfe as, 255. 

" Lady Clare," Marie Bur- 
roughs in, 294. 

Lady Gay Spanker, " Lon- 
don Assurance," Rose 
Coghlan as, 268. 

Lady Gilding, " Professor's 
Love Story," Maxine 
Elliott as, no. 

" Lady Gladys," Lillian 
Lawrence in, 238. 

" Lady Jemima," Mrs. Fiske 
in, 64, 66. 



Lady Jessica, " Liars," Isa- 
bel Irving as, 99. 
Lady Kate Ffennel, "Bau- 
ble Shop," Elsie DeWolfe 
as, 255. 
Lady Macbeth, Helena Mo- 

djeska as, 308, 321. 
Lady Noeline, " Amazons," 
Irving, Isabel, 103. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
" Lady of Lyons," 

Harned, Virginia, 133. 
Marlowe, Julia, 30. 
Rehan, Ada, 117. 
" Lady of Quality," Julia 

Arthur in, 166, 167. 
Lady Teazle, " School for 
Scandal," 

Coghlan, Rose, 268. 
Marlowe, Julia, 33. 
Rehan, Ada, 120, 123. 
Lady Ursula, " Adventure 
of Lady Ursula," Virginia 
Harned as, 125, 126. 
" Lady Windermere's Fan," 
Arthur, Julia, 163, 166. 
Harned, Virginia, 133. 
Langtry, Mrs. Lily, 192. 
" L'Assommoir," Ada Rehan 

in, 118. 
" Last Word," 

Bates, Blanche, 245. 
Rehan, Ada, 120. 
"Late Mr. Costello," Mary 

Mannering in, 157. 
" La Tosca," 

Nethersole, Olga, 221. 
Walsh, Blanche, 73, 75. 
Laurent, Marie, 252. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 232, 240, 
241, 242. 



350 Index of Famotcs Actresses. 



Leah da Costa, " Woman's 

Reason," Elsie DeWolfe 

as, 256. 
" Leah," Marie Burroughs 

in, 298. 
" Lend Me Five Shillings," 

Blanche Walsh in, 77. 
LeMoyne, Sarah Cowell, 39. 
LeMoyne, W. J., 293. 
" Les Chouans," Helena 

Modjeska in, 322. 
Leslie, Elsie, 145. 
" Lethe," Annie Russell in, 

93- 

Lettice Vane, " Harvest," 
Olga Nethersole as, 221. 

Lettie, " Saints and Sin- 
ners," Marie Burroughs as, 

295- 
Letitia Hardy, "Belle's 
Stratagem," 

Marlowe, Julia, 23- 

Rehan, Ada, 121. 

" Liar," Rose Coghlan in, 

262. 
" Liars," Isabel Irving in, 

99. 
" Liberty Hall," 

Allen, Viola, 146. 
Conquest, Ida, 71. 
Robson, May, 338. 
" Light from St. Agnes," 

Mrs. Fiske in, 64, 66. 
Litt, Jacob, 166. 
Little Em'ly, 

Lawrence, Lillian, in, 

241. 
Rehan, Ada, as, 117. 
" Little Lord Fauntleroy," 
Allen, Viola, 145. 
Kidder, Kathryn, 301. 



" Little Minister," Maude 

Adams in, 16. 
Little Schneider, " Our 
Fritz," Maude Adams as, 
14. 
" London Assurance," 
Coghlan, Rose, 268. 
Elliott, Maxine, 111. 
Rehan, Ada, 116. 
Walsh, Blanche, 76. 
"Long Lane," Virginia 

Harned in, 131. 
" Lord and Lady Algy," 

May Robson in, 324. 
" Lord Chumley," 

Anglin, Margaret, 272. 
Harned, Virginia, 132. 
Lorraine, Henry, 275. 
" Lost Paradise," 

Adams, Maude, 16. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 240. 
Tyler, Odette, 289. 
" Lottery of Love," 

Irving, Isabel, 102. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 240. 
Rehan, Ada, 119. 
Louise Greville, " Tragic 
Mask," Helena Modjeska 
as, 322. 
Louise, "Gringo ire," 

Blanche Walsh as, 79. 
Louise, " Two Orphans," 

Mrs. Fiske as, 59. 
"Love Chase," Julia Mar- 
lowe in, 22- 
" Love Finds the Way," 

Mrs. Fiske in, 66. 
" Love in Tandem," Ada 

Rehan in, 119. 
" Love's Labour Lost," Ada 
Rehan in, 120. 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



351 



" Love's Young Dream," 
Ada Rehan in, 119. 

Lucille, " Face in the Moon- 
light," Corona Riccardo 
as, 153. 

Lucy, " Professor's Love 
Story," Marie Burroughs 
as, 297. 

Lucy Hawksmith, " Girl I 
Left Behind Me," Odette 
Tyler as, 289. 

Lydia Languish, " Rivals," 
Allen, Viola, 146. 
Marlowe, Julia, 33. 
Walsh, Blanche, 79. 

"Lyons Mail," Rose Cogh- 
lan in, 268. 

" Macbeth," 

Coghlan, Rose, 262. 
Fiske, Mrs., 57. 
Modjeska, Helena, 

3°9- 

MacDowell, Melbourne, 
81, 

MacLean, R. D., 288. 

Madame Benoit, "Bohemia," 
May Robson as, 338. 

Madame de Mauban, " Pris- 
oner of Zenda," Fay Davis 
as, 276, 282. 

"Madame Sans -Gene," 
Kathryn Kidder in, 299, 

SOS- 
Madeline, " Frederic Le- 

maitre," Blanche Walsh 

as, 76. 
Madison Square Theatre, 

89, 90, 139, 163, 238, 289, 

292, 294, 301, 333. 
Maffit, James S., 188. 



" Magda," 

Fiske, Mrs., 66. 
Modjeska, Helena, 322. 

Maggie, " Engaged," Annie 
Russell as, 90. 

" Maister of Woodbarrow," 
Virginia Harned in, 132. 

" Man in Love," Elsie De- 
Wolfe in, 256. 

Mannering, Mary, 156. 

Mansfield, Richard, 270, 272, 

293- 

Mantell, R. B., 147, 152, 191, 
294. 

Margaret Neville, " Heart- 
ease," Blanche Walsh as, 

79- 

Marguerite, " Secret War- 
rant," Corona Riccardo 
as, 153. 

Marguerite Gauthier, " Ca- 
mille," 

Modjeska, Helena, 308. 
Nethersole, Olga, 223, 
226. 

Marie Deloche, " Queen of 
Liars," Mrs. Fiske as, 65. 

Marie de Veneuil, " Les 
Chouans," Helena Mo- 
djeska as, 322. 

Marie Louise, " Josephine," 
Lillian Lawrence as, 238. 

Marion, " Tess of the D'Ur- 
bervilles," Mary Shaw as, 
216. 

" Marjory's Lovers," Marie 
Burroughs in, 297. 

Marlowe, Julia, 27, 215. 

" Marriage," 

Conquest, Ida, 71. 
DeWolfe, Elsie, 256. 



3 5 2 Index of Famous Actresses. 



Mary Blenkern, " Middle- 
man," Marie Burroughs 
as, 297. 
Mary Morgan, " Ten Nights 
in a Barroom," Mrs. Fiske 
as, 60. 
Mary Standish, " Pique," 

Ada Rehan as, 117. 
" Mary Stuart," 

Modjeska, Helena, 318, 

321. 
Rehan, Ada, 117. 
Shaw, Mary, 214. 
Maryland Calvert, " Heart 
of Maryland," Mrs. Leslie 
Carter as, 193, 196, 
200. 
" Masked Ball," Maude 

Adams in, 16. 
" Masqueraders," 

Allen, Viola, 146. 
Davis, Fay, 277. 
DeWolfe, Elsie, 256. 
Mathews, Charles, 262. 
"Mayflower," MaryManner- 

ing in, 1 59. 
Mayo, Frank, 301. 
McCullough, John, 59, 116, 

140, 188. 
McNally, John J., 183. 
McWade, Robert, 27. 
" Measure for Measure," 
Modj eska, Helena, 

321. 
Shaw, Mary, 214. 
"Meddler," Marie Burroughs 

in, 298. 
Meg, " Lord C h u m 1 e y," 
Margaret A n g 1 i n as, 
272. 
Melville, Emily, 237. 



" Men and Women," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 239, 

240. 
Tyler, Odette, 289. 
" Mercedes," Julia Arthur in, 

163, 166, 167. 
" Merchant of Venice," 

Modj eska, Helena, 

321. 
Tyler, Odette, 285. 
" Middleman," 

Burroughs, Marie, 297. 
Elliott, Maxine, no. 
" Midnight Bell," Maude 

Adams in, 16. 
" Midsummer M a d n e s s," 

Mary Shaw in, 212. 
"Midsummer Night 's 
Dream," 

Elliott, Maxine, in. 
Irving, Isabel, 103. 
Rehan, Ada, 120. 
Miladi, "Musketeer s," 

Blanche Bates as, 243. 
Miles, Colonel, 27. 
Miller, Henry, 183. 
Millward, Jessie, 294. 
Miss Ashf ord, "Private 
Secretary," May Robson 
as, 338. 
"Miss Helyett," Mrs. Les- 
lie Carter in, 193, 196. 
Miss Prim, " Importance of 
Being Earnest," May Rob- 
son as, 328. 
" Miss Multon," Annie Rus- 
sell in, 90. 
Miss Violet, " Pantomime 
Rehearsal," Isabel Irving 
as, 101. 
Modjeska, Helena, 214, 306. 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



353 



" Monbars," Corona Ric- 

cardo in, 147, 153. 
Monica, "Tree of Knowl- 
edge," Fay Davis as, 277. 
" Monte Cristo," Margaret 

Anglin in, 272. 
" Monsieur Alphonse," Mrs. 

Fiske in, 60. 
"Mort Civile," Viola Allen 

in, 141. 
Moscheles, Felix, 274, 275. 
" Moth and the Flame," 

LeMoyne, Sarah Cow- 
ell, 43> 47- 
Shannon, Effie, 187, 
192. 
" Moths," 

Coghlan, Rose, 268. 
Nethersole, Olga, 222. 
Russell, Annie, 90. 
Mrs. Allenby, " Woman of 
No Importance," Maxine 
Elliott as, in. 
Mrs. Alving, " Ghosts," Mary 

Shaw as, 206, 209. 
Mrs. Bulford, "Great Dia- 
mond Robbery," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 232, 

239, 242. 
Walsh, Blanche, 78. 
" Mrs. Dascott," Lillian Law- 
rence in, 238. 
Mrs. Erlynne, " Lady Win- 
dermere's Fan," Virginia 
Harned as, 133. 
Mrs. Enrol, "Little Lord 
Fauntleroy," 

Allen, Viola, 145. 
Kidder, Kathryn, 301. 
Mrs. Glib, "Christopher, Jr.," 
Elsie De Wolfe as, 256. 



Mrs. Hillary, " Senator," 
Blanche Bates as, 245. 

Mrs. Lorimer, " Moth and 
the Flame," Sarah Cowell 
LeMoyne as, 43, 47. 

Mrs. Wanklyn, " John-a- 
Dreams," Elsie De Wolfe 
as, 256. 

" Much Ado about Noth- 
ing," 

Marlowe, Julia, 32. 
Modjeska, Helena, 321. 
Rehan, Ada, 117. 

Miille, Ida, 190. 

" Musketeers," 

Anglin, Margaret, 272. 
Bates, Blanche, 243. 

"My Awful Dad," Blanche 
Walsh in, 78. 

" My Uncle's Will," Blanche 
Walsh in, 76. 

" My Wife's M o t h e r," 
Blanche Walsh in, 78. 

" Mysterious Mr. Bugle," 
Margaret Anglin in, 272. 

"Nadjezda," Helena Mo- 
djeska in, 322. 

" Nancy & Co.," 

Bates, Blanche, 245. 
Irving, Isabel, 103. 
Rehan, Ada, 120, 122. 

" Nathan Hale," Maxine 
Elliott in, 108. 

Neill, James, 245. 

Neilson, Adelaide, 116, 170, 
262. 

Neilson, Julia, 283. 

Nellie Beers, " Love's Young 
Dream," Ada Rehan as, 
119. 



354 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



Nellie, "Lost Paradise," 

Maude Adams as, 16. 
Neodamia, "Gladiator," 

Viola Allen as, 141. 
Nethersole, Olga, 192, 217. 
" New Lamps for Old," Ada 

Rehan in, 120. 
" New Woman," 

Harned, Virginia, 133. 
Russell, Annie, 93. 
"Nicholas Nickleby," Rose 

Coghlan in, 262. 
" Night Off," 

Harned, Virginia, 131. 
Irving, Isabel, 103. 
Rehan, Ada, 120, 121. 
"Night's Frolic," Mary 

Shaw in, 216. 
" Night's S e s s i o n," May 

Robson in, 338. 
Niobe, " Night Off," Virginia 

Harned in, 131. 
Nora, " Doll's House," 
Fiske, Mrs., 65. 
Modjeska, Helena, 
322. 
" Norbeck," Kathryn Kidder 

in, 301. 
Nordica, Lillian, 275. 
" Nominee," Blanche Walsh 

in, 77. 
" Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith," 
Olga Nethersole in, 223. 

Oberon, "Midsummer 
Night's Dream," Isabel 
Irving as, 103. 

" Octoroon," Mrs. Fiske in, 



59- 

Old Jed Prouty, 
Irwin in, 183. 



May 



" Old Love and the New," 
Helena Modjeska in, 
318. 
Olivia, " Twelfth Night," 

Elliott, Maxine, in. 

Rehan, Ada, 117. 

Walsh, Blanche, 76. 
O'Neill, James, 243, 247, 

272. 
Ophelia, " Hamlet," 

Anglin, Margaret, 272. 

Burroughs, Marie, 297. 

Modjeska, Helena, 312, 
321. 

Rehan, Ada, 116. 

Riccardo, Corona, 153. 
" Orient Express," 

Elliott, Maxine, in. 

Irving, Isabel, 103. 
"Othello," 

Allen, Viola, 141, 142. 

Rehan, Ada, 116. 

Riccardo, Corona, 149, 

153- 
Tyler, Odette, 285, 286. 
Walsh, Blanche, 76. 
" Our Boarding House," 

Virginia Harned in, 131. 
" Our Fritz," Maude Adams 

in, 14. 
" Our Society," Annie Rus- 
sell in, 90. 

Palmer, A. M., 

Arthur, Julia, 163, 165. 
Burroughs, Marie, 294. 
Conquest, Ida, 70. 
Elliott, Maxine, no. 
Harned, Virginia, 133. 
LeMoyne, Sarah 
Cowell, 42, 44. 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



355 



" Pantomime Reh e a r s a 1," 

Isabel Irving in, 101. 
"Partners," Marie Bur- 
roughs in, 297. 
Parthenia, " Ingomar," 
Allen, Viola, 141. 
Arthur, Julia, 167. 
Marlowe, Julia, 30, 31. 
Pastor, Tony, 176. 
Paul, "Octoroon," Mrs. 

Fiske as, 59. 
Paula, " Second Mrs. Tan- 
queray," Olga Nethersole 
as, 217. 
Pauline March, " Called 
Back," Marie Burroughs 
as, 294. 
Peggy, " Country Girl," 
Ada Reh an as, 120, 
123. 
Peg Wofnngton, Rose Cogh- 

lan as, 267, 268. 
Perkins, " Double Lesson," 

Isabel Irving as, 101. 
Phyllis Lee, "Charity 
Ball," 

Bates, Blanche, 246. 
Conquest, Ida, 70. 
" Pinafore," 

Marlowe, Julia, 17. 

Russell, Annie, 88. 

Shannon, Effie, 189. 

" Pink Dominoes," Blanche 

Walsh in, 77. 
" Pique," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
Rehan, Ada, 117. 
Shaw, Mary, 213. 
Pitou, Augustus, 300. 
Player Queen, " Hamlet," 
Rose Coghlan as, 268. 



" Poet and the Puppets," 
Irwin, May, 184. 
Robson, May, 334. 
Polly, "Lost Paradise," 

Odette Tyler as, 289. 
Portia, " Julius Caesar," 

Odette Tyler as, 285. 
Portia, " Merchant of Ven- 
ice," 

Modjeska, Helena, 321. 

Tyler, Odette, 285, 286. 

Potter, Mrs. James Brown, 

157- 
Poulette, "Conquerors," 

May Robson as, 324. 
Powers, Leland, 274. 
Presbrey, E. W., 90. 
Prince Arthur, " King John," 

Mrs. Fiske as, 59. 
Prince Hal, " King Henry 

IV.," Julia Marlowe as, 

33. 
" Prince Zillah," Helena 

Modjeska in, 322. 
" Princess and the Butter- 

fly," 

Davis, Fay, 277, 279. 
Mannering, Mary, 159. 
Princess Beatrice, " Terma- 
gant," Olga Nethersole 

as, 231. 
Princess of France, " Love's 

Labour Lost," Ada Rehan 

as, 120. 
" Princess Olga," Rose 

Coghlan in, 268. 
" Princess Walanoff," Rose 

Coghlan in, 269. 
" Prisoner of Zenda," 

Davis, Fay, 277, 282. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 242. 



3 5 ^ Index of Famous Actresses. 



" Prodigal Daughter," 

Elliott, Maxine, no. 

Lawrence, Lillian, 242. 
" Professor's Love Story," 

Burroughs, Marie, 297. 

Elliott, Maxine, no. 
" Profligate," 

Burroughs, Marie, 298. 

Nethersole, Olga, 223. 
" Puritan Maid," Mrs. Fiske 

in, 64. 
" Pygmalion and Galatea," 
Julia Arthur in, 167. 

Queen Anne, " Richard 

III.," Ada Rehan as, 116. 
Queen Elizabeth, "Amy 

Robsart," Blanche Walsh 

as, 76. 
Queen Elizabeth, " Mary 

Stuart," 

Rehan, Ada, 117. 
Shaw, Mary, 214. 
Queen Guinevere, " Elaine," 

Marie Burroughs as, 294. 
Queen, " Hamlet," Mary 

Mannering as, 158. 
" Queen of Liars," Mrs. 

Fiske in, 65. 

" Railroad of Love," 

Bates, Blanche, 245. 

Irving, Isabel, 103. 

Rehan, Ada, 119. 
"Rajah," Marie Burroughs 

in, 292. 
Rehan, Ada, 102, 113. 
Re jane, Madame, 300, 303. 
Renee de Cochefort, " Un- 
der the Red Robe," 

Allen, Viola, 71. 

Conquest, Ida, 71. 



Rhea, Hortense, 238. 
Riccardo, Corona, 147. 
" Richard III.," 

Fiske, Mrs., 56. 

Rehan, Ada, 116. 
" Richelieu," 

Anglin, Margaret, 272. 

Fiske, Mrs., 59. 

Modjeska, Helena, 
321. 
" Right to Happiness," Mrs. 

Fiske in, 66. 
Rigl, Emily, 117. 
" Rip Van Winkle," 

Fiske, Mrs., 60. 

Marlowe, Julia, 28. 
" Rivals," 

Allen, Viola, 146. 

Marlowe, Julia, 23' 

Walsh, Blanche, 79. 
Roberts, Genevieve, 262. 
Robins, Elizabeth, 209. 
" Robisonade," Mary Shaw 

in, 211. 
Robison, Mary, May Rob- 
son's name, 329. 
Robson, May, 323. 
Robson, Stuart, 298. 
" Rogues and Vagabonds," 

Julia Marlowe in, ^. 
"Rohan, the Silent," Ida 

Conquest in, 69. 
Rolfe, Dr. William J., 228. 
" Romeo and Juliet," 

Adams, Maude, 17. 

Allen, Viola, 141, 143. 

Arthur, Julia, 167, 171. 

Burroughs, Marie, 298. 

Marlowe, Julia, 28, 36. 

Modjeska, Helena, 312, 
318, 321. 



Index of Famous Actresses. 



357 



Nethersole, Olga, 223, 

227. 
Riccardo, Corona, 148. 
Tyler, Odette, 285, 286. 
" Romeo's First Love," 

Blanche Walsh in, 78. 
" Romola," Julia Marlowe in, 

33- 
Rosalind, "As You Like 
It," 

Anglin, Margaret, 272. 
Arthur, Julia, 167, 170. 
Coghlan, Rose, 267, 268. 
Davis, Fay, 277. 
Kidder, Kathryn, 305. 
Marlowe, Julia, 35. 
Modjeska, Helena, 321. 
Rehan, Ada, 120, 122. 
Shaw, Mary, 215. 
Rosamond, " Becket," Julia 

Arthur as, 166. 
Rose Dalrymple, " In Hon- 
our Bound," Isabel Irving 
as, 102. 
Rose Reade, " Sister Mary," 

Elsie De Wolfe as, 255. 
RoseTrelawney," Trelawney 
of the Wells," Mary Man- 
nering as, 158, 159. 
" Rosedale," 

Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
Rehan, Ada, 117. 
" Rosemary," Maude Adams 

in, 16. 
" Royal Middy," Lillian 

Lawrence in, 237. 
Roxane, " Cyrano de Ber- 
gerac," 

Anglin, Margaret, 270. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 243. 
Rehan, Ada, 121. 



"Rural Stroll," May Irwin 

in, 178. 
Russell, Annie, 82, 139, 

2 95- 
Russell, Hattie, 115. 
Russell, Sol Smith, 80. 
Ruth, " Ambition," Annie 

Russell as, 93. 

" Saints and Sinners," 

Burroughs, Marie, 295. 
Harned, Virginia, 133. 

Salvini, Alexander, 69, 90, 
141, 295. 

Salvini, Tomasa, 141. 

Sardou, Victorien, 73, 252, 

253. 254- 
" School," Lillian Lawrence 

in, 241. 
" School for Scandal," 
Coghlan, Rose, 268. 
Marlowe, Julia, 33. 
Rehan, Ada, 120, 123. 
" School Mistress," Isabel 

Irving in, 10 1. 
Scott, Clement, 152. 
" Scrap of Paper," 

Coghlan, Rose, 268. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
" Sealed Instructions," An- 
nie Russell in, 90. 
" Second Mrs. Tanqueray," 
Olga Nethersole in, 217, 
223. 
" Secret Service," 

Tyler, Odette, 285, 286, 

290. 
Walsh, Blanche, 80. 
" Secret Warrant," Corona 

Riccardo in, 153. 
Seligman, Minnie, 90, 238. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

015 995 043 8 

358 Index of Famoits Actresses. 



"Senator," Blanche Walsh 

in, 245. 
" Seven-Twenty-Eight," 
Bates, Blanche, 245. 
Rehan, Ada, 120, 121. 
Shannon, Effie, 187. 
Shaw, Mary, 206. 
" She Stoops to Conquer," 
Marlowe, Julia, 33, 37. 
Shaw, Mary, 211. 
" Sheep in Wolf's Clothing," 

Mrs. Fiske in, 60. 
" Shenandoah," 

Allen, Viola, 145. 
Anglin, Margaret, 271. 
Lawrence, Lillian, 241. 
Tyler, Odette, 290. 
" Shilling's Worth " (see 

"Colonial Girl"). 
" Shining Light," May Rob- 
son in, 335. 
" Siberia," Blanche Walsh 

in, 76. 
"Sieba," Odette Tyler in, 

288. 
" Sign of the Cross," Corona 

Riccardo in, 151. 
" Silent Battle," Olga Neth- 

ersole in, 217, 223. 
" Silver King," 

Coghlan, Rose, 268. 
Shannon, Effie, 191. 
Silvia, " Two Gentlemen of 
Verona," Maxine Elliott 
as, in. 
Sister Genevieve, " Two 
Orphans," Lillian Law- 
rence as, 238. 
" Sister Mary," 

De Wolfe, Elsie, 255. 
Elliott, Maxine, in, 



Sothern, E. A., 262. 
Sothern, E. H., 15, 126, 132, 

133, 211, 212, 272. 
" Sowing the Wind," Viola 

Allen in, 146. 
" Sphinx," Mav Robson in, 

328. 
" Squire of Dames," Fay 

Davis in, 276, 279. 
" Squirrel Inn," May Rob- 
son in, 338. 
Stephanie, "Forge t-M e- 

Not," Rose Coghlan as, 

266, 267. 
Stetson, John, 188. 
" Still Alarm," 

Arthur, Julia, 165. 
Harned, Virginia, 131. 
Stockwell, L. R., 244. 
Stoddart, J. PL, 296. 
"Storm Child," Mrs. Fiske 

in, 63. 
" Straight from the Heart," 

Blanche Walsh in, 80. 
" Sue," Annie Russell in, 94. 
Suzanne, " Masked Ball," 

Maude Adams as, 16. 
" Sweet Lavender," Blanche 

Walsh in, 246. 
" Swell Miss Fitzwell," May 

Irwin in, 186. 
Sybil, "Sheep in Wolf's 

Clothing," Mrs. Fiske as, 

60. 
Sylvia Spencer, " Our So- 
ciety," Annie Russell as, 

90. 

" Taming of the Shrew," 
Ada Rehan in ? 116, 120, 
132, 123. 



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